"VI  1 1 

SB         I      f- 


ARY 


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FROM 

JIM 

GIF, 
MRS.  JIM 


THE  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE 
MEXICAN  QUESTION 

JAY  S.  STOWELL,  M.A. 


THE  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE 
MEXICAN  QUESTION 

BY 

JAY  S.  STOWELL,  M.A. 


NEW  X5JT  YORK 
GEORGE   H.   DORAN   COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1921, 
BY  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


Co'1.- 
Lfcu-y 


TO  MY  WIFE 
ANNE  WILDER  STOWELL 


FOREWORD 

There  are  two  sides  to  nearly  every  matter  and  the 
ever-present  Mexican  question  offers  no  exception  to 
this  general  rule.  The  side  of  this  question  of  which 
we  hear  least  is  that  lying  north  of  the  international  line, 
yet  this  aspect  of  the  situation  is  of^itaJLj^ncern^ta 
jeyery  citizen  in  the  United  States.  The  future  of  our 
country  is  unalterably  and  inextricably  bound  up  with 
the  future  of  Mexico  and  the  Mexicans.  Every  passing 
year  but  adds  emphasis  to  this  fact.  The  multitude  of 
Mexicans,  who  have  found  refuge  within  our  borders 
during  the  last  decade,  added  to  the  not  inconsiderable 
Spanish-American  element  resident  for  a  much  longer 
period  here,  forms  a  group  which  has  become  well-nigh 
indispensable  to  our  national  life  and  one  with  which  we 
must  reckon  in  the  days  to  come. 

It  is  to  help  the  reader  understand  something  of  the 
intimacy  of  our  relationship  to  Mexico  and  the  large 
contribution  which  Mexicans  and  Spanish-Americans 
are  already  making  to  our  national  life  that  this  book 
is  written.  If  it  helps  at  all  toward  a  sympathetic  ap- 
proach to  the  common  problems  which  Mexicans  and 
Americans  must  work  out  side  by  side  in  the  days  ahead, 
it  will  have  accomplished  its  purpose. 

JAY  S.  STOWELL. 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  "BORDER"     .        .  .        .        .        .        .13 

CHAPTER  II 

THE  MEXICAN  AT  WORK  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES      .      32 

CHAPTER  III 
SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN  NEW   MEXICO       ...      50 

CHAPTER  IV 
RELIGION      .  ,        ....        .        .        .67 

CHAPTER  V 
EDUCATION 85 

CHAPTER  VI 
A  FORWARD  LOOK  106 


THE  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE 
MEXICAN  QUESTION 


THE  NEAR   SIDE  OF  THE 
MEXICAN   QUESTION 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  "BORDER" 

Arizona  boy  was  recently  taken  by  his  mother  for 
his  first  visit  to  the  "Border."  He  stood  at  the  interna- 
tional line  and  gazed  in  every  direction.  Then  in  disap- 
pointment he  turned  to  his  parent  and  cried,  "Why, 
Mother,  I  don't  see  any  Border." 

The  scenery  on  one  side  of  the  line  was  not  particularly 
different  from  that  on  the  other;  the  vegetation  was  the 
same;  the  little  adobe  huts  on  the  American  side  looked 
exactly  like  those  on  the  Mexican  side;  and  the  people 
were  as  dark-skinned  on  one  side  of  the  line  as  on  the 
other.  There  was  a  barbed  wire  fence,  to  be  sure,  but 
it  was  not  labeled,  and  it  was  not  strikingly  different  from 
the  thousands  of  miles  of  similar  fence  which  crisscross 
the  United  States  from  coast  to  coast. 

No,  it  was  not  specially  surprising  that  the  boy  was 
disappointed.  Our  1,833  rniles  of  Mexican  Border  have 
little  that  is  spectacular  to  offer  the  visitor.  The  Rio 
Grande  River  which  flows  between  Texas  and  Mexico  is, 
at  certain  places  and  at  certain  seasons,  an  imposing 
stream,  but  at  other  points  and  other  seasons  it  is  far 

13 


14    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

from  awe-inspiring.  Even  when  it  is  too  deep  to  be 
forded,  railroad  bridges,  foot  bridges,  licensed  ferries, 
and  unlicensed  boatmen  at  out-of-the-way  points  convert 
the  Rio  Grande  into  the  stream  that  unites  Texas  with 
Mexico  rather  than  separates  her  from  Mexico.  West 
of  El  Paso,  however,  there  is  no  Rio  Grande  and  the 
Border  stretches  for  hundreds  of  miles  to  San  Diego 
and  Tia  Juana,  marked  here  and  there  by  concrete  posts 
and  intermittent  stretches  of  wire  fence,  but  elsewhere 
unmarked  and  often  unguarded.  The  thing  which  im- 
presses the  traveler  from  Brownsville  on  the  east  to  San 
Diego  on  the  west  is  the  same  thing  which  impressed  the 
boy,  namely,  that  there  is  no  Border.  For  nearly  two 
thousand  miles  the  United  States  stands  joined  to  Mexico. 
Legally  there  may  be  a  place  where  one  nation  stops  and 
another  begins;  an  instant  when  you  are  in  the  United 
States  and  the  next  instant  in  Mexico;  but  such  distinc- 
tions are  artificial,  and  so  far  as  our  Southwestern  Border 
is  concerned  they  can  easily  be  over-emphasized.  Human 
nature  has  ever  ignored  artificial  barriers,  and  human 
nature  on  the  Border  is  no  exception.  Life  on  the  two 
sides  of  the  Border  has  blended  to  a  remarkable  degree. 

American  business  men  reside  in  the  United  States  and 
spend  most  of  their  waking  hours  in  Mexico;  Mexican 
children  sleep  in  Old  Mexico  and  come  into  the  United 
States  each  morning  to  attend  school;  American  laborers 
work  across  the  line  in  Mexico  and  Mexican  laborers  do 
every  conceivable  sort  of  work  in  the  United  States ; 
Mexican  women  purchase  their  groceries  in  the  United 
States  and  thousands  of  American  women  and  men  go 
into  Mexico  to  trade,  to  see  the  sights  and,  until  recently, 
at  least,  to  gamble,  to  play  the  races,  and  to  otherwise 
disport  themselves ;  ministers  on  Sunday  preach  the  Gos- 


-,  THE  "BORDER"  15 

pel  in  the  United  States  in  the  morning,  in  Old  Mexico 
in  the  afternoon,  and  again  in  the  United  States  at  night; 
railroad  and  street  car  passengers  get  on  trains  in  the 
United  States  and  ride  down  into  Mexico,  and  other  pas- 
sengers get  on  trains  in  Mexico  and  ride  across  into  the 
United  States;  Mexican  criminals  seek  haven  in  the 
United  States,  and  our  criminals  flee  into  Mexico.  And 
thus  the  list  might  be  indefinitely  continued.  There  are 
important  border  towns  in  the  United  States  which  are 
eighty-five  per  cent  Mexican,  and  where  Spanish  is  the 
language  of  the  home,  the  street  and  the  market-place, 
and  there  are  Mexican  towns  across  the  line  where  Eng- 
lish is  practically  as  current  as  Spanish. 

Added  to  these  intimate  and  inevitable  contacts  there 
is  the  bond  of  a  large  and  ever-increasing  international 
trade.  In  spite  of  internal  turmoil  in  Mexico  this  has 
amounted  to  a  large  total  in  recent  years.  For  the  fiscal 
year  1910  just  before  the  resignation  of  President  Diaz 
«.t  was  $  1 1 5 ,000,000.  In  1 9 1 7  the  totel  wias  $  1 91 ,000,000 ; 
in  1918  $245,000,000;  in  1919  $278,000,000;  and  for 
1920  it  is  reported  as  over  $300,000,000.  Some  one  has 
pointed  out  that  our  sales  to  the  15,000,000  people  of 
Mexico  are  more  than  our  sales  to  the  400,000,000  people 
of  China  or  the  300,000,000  people  of  India.  We  import 
sisal,  petroleum,  cotton,  hides,  copper,  chick-peas,  coffee, 
mahogany,  india  rubber,  silver  and  multitudinous  other 
products.  In  return  we  send  Mexico  quantities  of  manu- 
factured articles  and  refined  products.  Before  the  war 
we  were  supplying  about  one-half  of  Mexico's  imports. 
It  is  said  that  we  are  now  supplying  eighty-five  per  cent  of 
her  imports  and  taking  ninety  per  cent  of  her  exports. 
Much  of  the  trade  which  conies  directly  across  the  Border 
passes  through  Texas,  but  for  the  year  ending  June  3Oth, 


16    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

1919,  the  total  imports  and  exports  for  the  Arizona  Dis- 
trict were  nearly  $38,000,000  and  for  the  Southern  Cali- 
fornia District  nearly  $20,000,000.  Douglas  and  Nogales, 
Arizona,  and  Calexico,  California,  have,  within  a  few 
years,  become  very  important  ports  of  entry.  The  large 
investments  of  American  capital  in  Mexico  have  been  an 
important  factor  in  turning  Mexican  trade  to  the  United 
States.  Before  the  war  the  investment  of  American 
capital  in  Mexico  was  estimated  at  over  $1,000,000,000. 
It  was  recently  estimated  by  United  States  Senator  Fall 
at  $2,000,000,000.  The  War  which  shut  off  other  sources 
of  supply  from  Mexico  has  perhaps  been  the  chief  factor 
in  the  recent  rapid  growth  of  our  trade  with  Mexico. 

Now  that  the  War  is  over  the  important  question  arises 
whether  we  are  to  hold  the  trade  which  we  acquired  by 
force  of  circumstances  while  it  was  in  progress.  The 
attitude  of  the  new  government  in  Mexico  toward  the 
United  States  becomes  a  matter  of  immediate  concern  to 
many  an  American  business  man. 

To  many  the  term  "Mexico"  is  but  a  synonym  for 
"revolution,"  and  it  is  true  that  during  the  last  decade 
there  have  been  several  overturns  in  governmental  au- 
thority. Even  before  that  period  Mexico  was  not  a 
stranger  to  wars,  internal  dissensions,  and  revolutions. 
Before  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards  under  Cortes  in  1519 
the  story  of  Mexico  was  the  story  of  the  struggle  of  one 
group  for  supremacy  over  another.  By  1376  the  power  of 
the  Aztecs  was  generally  recognized,  and  they  were  the 
rulers  when  Cortes  appeared.  Cortes  had  been  in  Mexico 
City  only  a  month,  however,  until  he  had  Montezuma  II, 
the  last  ruler  of  the  Aztecs  and  Emperor  of  Mexico,  in 
jail.  History  tells  us  that  the  reign  of  Montezuma  II  was 


THE  "BORDER"  17 

occupied  "with  expeditions  of  conquest,  suppression  of 
revolts,  erection  of  temples,  and  extensive  immolations 
of  human  victims."  From  1519  until  1821  Mexico  was 
under  the  direct  rule  of  Spain,  exercised  during  the  first 
fifteen  years  through  military  governors  and  then  through 
Viceroys,  of  whom  there  were  more  than  sixty.  Some 
of  these  were  good  rulers  and  some  were  bad,  but  in  gen- 
eral, with  the  exception  of  numerous  Indian  revolts,  they 
kept  the  people  in  subjection,  and  there  was  considerable 
progress  in  education,  mining,  agriculture,  drainage,  com- 
merce and  similar  lines. 

On  September  16,  1810,  there  began  the  struggle  for 
Mexican  independence  which  lasted  for  more  than  a 
decade,  and  on  October  4,  1824,  the  first  constitution  of 
the  Republic  of  Mexico  was  proclaimed.  There  followed 
a  half  century  of  internal  dissension,  during  which  revo- 
lution followed  revolution  and  Mexican  affairs  were  in 
continual  turmoil  until  the  coming  of  Porfirio  Diaz.  Dur- 
ing this  period  the  independence  of  Texas  was  won 
(1836)  and  ten  years  later  the  war  between  Mexico  and 
the  United  States  broke  out.  This  resulted  in  a  new 
and  largely  modified  boundary  for  Mexico.  In  1876  Diaz 
assumed  control  of  Mexico  and  the  following  year  he 
was  elected  President  of  the  Republic.  From  1876  until 
1911  Porfirio  Diaz  was  the  dominant  figure  in  Mexico. 
He  established  a  stable  government;  negotiated  foreign 
treaties;  extended  educational  facilities;  established  the 
credit  of  Mexico;  built  railroads,  harbor  facilities,  and 
other  public  improvements ;  and  did  much  to  regulate  the 
internal  affairs  of  the  Republic.  In  1911  Francisco  Ma- 
dero  overthrew  the  power  of  Diaz  and  was  elected  Presi- 
dent. Revolts  at  once  broke  out  and  guerrilla  warfare 
sprang  up.  In  1913  Madero  was  forced  out  of  the  Pres- 


18    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

idency  and  four  days  later  was  murdered.  General  Vic- 
toriana  Huerta  assumed  control,  and  his  power  as  pro- 
visional President  was  continued  until  July  5th,  1914.  On 
August  2Oth,  1914,  Venustiano  Carranza  made  his  tri- 
umphal entry  into  Mexico  City.  He  was  soon  forced  out 
of  the  City,  however.  He  then  set  up  his  government  at 
Puebla  and  later  at  Vera  Cruz.  In  one  way  or  another 
Carranza  continued  to  be  the  dominant  factor  in  Mexican 
politics,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution  in  Sonora, 
April  loth,  1920.  Just  thirty  days  from  the  outbreak  of 
this  revolution  Associated  Press  dispatches  told  of  the 
flight  of  President  Carranza  from  the  City  of  Mexico, 
and  on  May  22nd  press  dispatches  were  telling  of  the 
death  of  Carranza  at  the  hands  of  his  own  troops.  Adolfo 
de  la  Huerta,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Sonora,  was  made 
provisional  President  of  the  Republic,  with  General  Al- 
varo  Obregon  a  strong  factor  in  the  new  government  and 
candidate  for  the  position  of  President.  On  September 
5th,  1920,  General  Obregon  was  elected  President. 
.  From  such  a  background,  optimism  concerning  the  im- 
mediate future  of  Mexico  and  of  our  relations  with  Mex- 
ico can  arise  either  because  "hope  springs  eternal  in  the 
human  breast"  or  because  there  are  real  reasons  for  optim- 
ism. Probably  both  factors  are  at  work  in  the  present 
situation.  At  any  rate  there  is  a  surprising  amount  of 
optimism  along  the  Border  in  regard  to  the  future  of  con- 
ditions in  Mexico.  It  chanced  that  during  the  entire  time 
that  the  revolution  was  in  progress  I  was  on  the  Border 
and  had  an  opportunity  to  see  the  Border  phases  of  it  in 
process.  There  was  little  that  was  spectacular,  but  there 
was  much  that  was  interesting.  Most  interesting  of  all  was 
the  conversation  of  those  who  were  witnessing  at  short 
range  or  were  sharing  in  the  revolution  in  some  way.  I 


THE  "BORDER"  19 

was  over  in  Carranza's  territory  and  also  over  in  the  rev- 
olutionists' territory  while  the  revolution  was  in  progress ; 
I  talked  with  officials  of  both  sides;  and  I  talked  with 
many  Americans  of  many  sorts,  some  of  whom  had  lost 
heavily  through  the  long  continued  unsettled  conditions 
in  Mexico.  Not  once  did  I  hear  the  revolution  referred 
to  as  "another  Mexican  revolution"  or  in  any  other  dis- 
paraging terms.  There  was  a  disposition  everywhere  to 
take  the  movement  seriously  and  to  welcome  it  as  a  step 
toward  the  establishment  of  a  stable  and  dependable  gov-  "' 
ernment  in  Mexico. 

So  far  as  the  revolution  itself  was  concerned  it  was 
conducted  with  a  minimum  of  violence  and  bloodshed.  In 
Sonora  the  revolution  caused  little  disturbance,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  the  leader  of  the  revolution  was  the  Governor 
of  the  State.  There  was  little  or  no  interruption  of  busi- 
ness across  the  border,  and  a  visitor  to  Nogales  or  to  any 
of  the  other  Arizona  points  on  the  Border  would  have 
seen  nothing  to  indicate  that  a  revolution  was  in  progress. 
In  Chihuahua  General  Emilio  Salinas,  brother-in-law  of 
Carranza  and  provisional  Governor  of  the  State,  was  im- 
prisoned, but  later  allowed  to  escape  upon  payment  of 
12,000  pesos.  I  met  General  Salinas  a  few  hours  after 
his  escape  and  traveled  with  him  and  his  young  wife  for 
nearly  twenty-four  hours.  He  had  formerly  been  Mex- 
ican Consul  in  New  York  City. 

Perhaps  the  severest  disturbance  on  the  Border  oc-  ^ 
curred  at  Nuevo  Laredo  just  across  from  Laredo,  Texas, 
on  May  gth.  General  Reynaldo  Garza,  the  Carranza 
leader,  refused  to  surrender  the  town.  His  garrison  con- 
sisted of  sixty  men.  The  revolutionists  attacked  him  with 
eighty  men.  The  battle  lasted  for  thirty  minutes,  during 
which  the  residents  of  Laredo  gathered  at  the  bank  of  the 


river  just  across  from  Nuevo  Laredo.  A  few  aeroplanes 
added  to  the  picturesqueness  of  the  situation,  and  several 
Mexican  women  provided  the  finishing  touch  by  calmly 
sweeping  their  sidewalks  or  patios  while  the  fighting  was 
at  its  height.  Other  citizens  in  Nuevo  Laredo  watched 
the  fighting  from  their  homes.  Almost  none  of  them 
tried  to  find  refuge  in  the  United  States  as  they  had  done 
in  previous  times  of  disturbance.  General  Garza  fought 
for  a  time,  and  then  he  and  his  son  jumped  into  an  auto- 
mobile and  started  out  in  a  southeastern  direction.  The 
machine  was  soon  punctured  by  bullets,  and  the  fugitives 
abandoned  it  and  soon  after  crossed  the  Rio  Grande  into 
the  United  States,  the  desired  haven  of  every  hard 
pressed  soul  in  Mexico.  During  the  fight  rifles  and  auto- 
matic pistols  were  the  principal  weapons  used.  The  attack 
occurred  at  5  150  o'clock  Sunday  morning  and  by  7  o'clock 
a  parade  of  revolutionists,  headed  by  a  band  and  shouting 
"Viva  Obregon,"  filled  the  streets.  Simultaneously  a  rev- 
olutionist who  had  taken  part  in  the  attack  appeared  at 
the  river  bank  and  shouted  to  the  Americans  across  the 
river:  "We  have  taken  the  place;  come  over,  boys!" 
And  the  bell  in  the  Catholic  church  at  Nuevo  Laredo  rang 
out  notes  of  victory.  Two  hours  after  the  fighting  ceased 
the  place  was  as  quiet  and  orderly  as  ever.  The  saloons 
were  kept  closed  all  day,  so  there  was  no  disturbance  from 
drunkenness.  Seven  were  reported  killed  by  the  fighting 
and  seventeen  wounded.  As  soon  as  the  town  was  cap- 
tured an  acting  mayor  was  appointed,  a  police  force  estab- 
lished and  the  various  customs,  immigration  and  post- 
office  positions  filled  so  that  the  life  of  the  town  might 
proceed  unmolested. 

At  many  other  places  there  was  no  fighting  at  all  and 
the  transfer  of  authority  was  made  without  disturbance  of 


THE  "BORDER"  21 

any  sort.  I  stood  on  the  international  line  at  Brownsville 
while  negotiations  were  being  made  for  turning  over  the 
reins  of  authority  in  Matamoras  just  across.  There  was 
some  slight  attempt  to  check  passage  across  the  line  until 
the  status  of  affairs  should  have  been  determined  and  an- 
nounced, but  Mexican  women  with  groceries  and  other 
residents  had  little  difficulty  in  going  and  coming. 

The  orderly  conduct  of  the  revolution  and  the  evident  l 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  leaders  to  avoid  bloodshed  were 
good  omens.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
revolutionists  were  as  disappointed  and  grieved  over  the 
sad  fate  which  befell  Carranza  as  were  his  admirers.  Of 
course  it  was  good  politics  for  them  to  be  so,  but  it  is 
only  fair  to  believe  that  their  motives  were  humanitarian 
rather  than  political.  A  prominent  leader  of  the  revolu- 
tion told  me  while  Carranza  was  still  in  Mexico  City  that 
they  would  be  delighted  to  have  him  escape,  and  that  they 
had  already  offered  him  safe  conduct  out  of  the  country 
if  he  would  avail  himself  of  it.  I  had  at  the  time,  and 
still  have,  no  reason  to  doubt  his  statement.  Whether 
Carranza  underestimated  the  strength  of  the  revolution, 
or  whether  he  felt  that  it  was  undignified  for  him  to  flee 
from  the  country,  he  evidently  did  not  care  to  avail  himself 
of  the  opportunity  to  escape. 

More  significant,  however,  than  the  method  of  con-  i 
ducting  the  revolution  is  the  attitude  of  the  present  leaders 
of  Mexico  toward  the  United  States  and  toward  the  im- 
portant questions  concerning  which  Mexico  must  adopt 
very  definite  policies.  It  is  significant  that  the  revolution 
started  in  Sonora,  a  state  which  has  kept  on  the  most 
friendly  relations  with  the  United  States,  which  for  years 
has  kept  its  borders  free  from  the  vice  on  which  other 
Mexican  states  have  fattened,  and  which  has  given  diligent 


22    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

attention  to  the  building  up  of  wholesome  commercial 
relationships  with  the  United  States.  Nor  have  the  state- 
ments made  by  the  leaders  of  Mexico  since  the  success  of 
the  revolution  has  been  assured  been  disappointing. 
Everywhere  there  has  been  a  new  note  of  sincerity,  of 
integrity  of  purpose,  and  of  determined  friendliness 
toward  the  United  States.  Of  course  any  other  attitude 
would  only  be  folly  on  Mexico's  part  and  a  great  disad- 
vantage to  the  United  States.  That  fact,  however,  does 
not  minimize  the  significance  of  Mexico's  frank  recogni- 
tion of  it.  The  leaders  of  Mexico  know  that  they  need 
the  friendly  co-operation  and  assistance  of  the  United 
States.  Possibly  it  would  be  a  good  thing  for  us  if  we 
appreciated  a  little  more  clearly  how  much  we  need  the 
friendship  and  confidence  of  Mexico. 

Recently  (June  I9th,  1920)  President  de  la  Huerta 
gave  a  dinner  to  a  number  of  American  writers  in  Mexico 
City.  Some  of  his  remarks  are  worthy  of  notice. 

Speaking  of  conditions  in  Mexico,  he  said:  "I  think 
that  the  economic  situation  will  soon  be  better,  as  I  have 
noted  a  better  atmosphere  among  bankers  and  business 
men,  although  the  men  in  power  are  the  last  to  know  the 
true  conditions.  I  may  be  fooled  by  this  feeling,  but  it 
would  seem  that  we  are  on  the  road  to  progress." 

When  questioned  concerning  the  oil  situation,  he  re- 
plied: "We  will  go  half  way,  and  I  am  sure  that  the 
American  business  interests  will  come  the  other  half." 

He  then  went  on  to  say  that  he  wished  to  impress 
upon  the  American  people  that  Mexico  would  be  more 
than  friendly,  and  that  he  personally  would  not  permit 
politicians  for  personal  interests  to  provoke  friction. 
He  said  that  it  had  been  the  idea  of  many  Mexican 


THE  "BORDER"  23 

leaders  to  use  fear  of  the  United  States  as  a  threat  over 
Mexicans,  but  that  he  was  determined  to  use  all  means 
in  his  power  to  make  clear  to  the  United  States,  by  deeds 
as  well  as  words,  that  Mexico  and  the  United  States 
should  and  would  be  more  than  friendly. 

Since  the  election  of  President  Obregon  he  has  given 
voice  to  some  of  the  ideals  and  policies  which  are  to  dom- 
inate his  administration.  These  include  an  honest  gov- 
ernment, amnesty  for  political  offenders,  punishment  of 
criminals,  payment  of  the  national  debt,  reduction  of  the 
army,  encouragement  of  agriculture  and  business,  protec- 
tion of  foreign  investments  in  Mexico,  friendship  with  the 
United  States  and  other  neighbors,  development  of  indus- 
try, and  other  similar  items. 

Surely  those  are  encouraging  sentiments,  and  we  shall 
get  further  along  the  path  which  leads  to  properly  ad- 
justed relationships  with  Mexico  if,  for  the  present,  we 
accept  them  at  their  face  value  than  if  we  adopt  an  attitude 
of  suspicion. 

In  August  (1920)  General  Salvador  Alvarado,  Min- 
ister of  Finance  for  the  new  government  in  Mexico,  spoke 
before  a  group  of  New  York  bankers  and  professional 
men  at  the  Bankers'  Club  in  New  York  City.  He  spoke 
frankly  of  the  needs  of  Mexico  after  a  decade  of  revolu- 
tion and  disorder,  but  he  also  spoke  encouragingly  of  the 
"newly  awakened  national  conscience  in  Mexico."  He 
said  in  part : 

"The  great  longing  for  peace,  reorganization,  work, 
and  prosperity  is  equally  strong  in  the  banker  as  in  the 
farmer,  the  merchant,  or  the  cattle  raiser,  the  skilled 
worker  or  the  common  laborer;  all  are  ready  to  settle 
down  and  work.  This  enthusiasm,  confidence,  and  optim- 


24    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

ism  are  the  surest  signs  that  the  revolutionary  era  is  over 
in  Mexico,  at  least  so  far  as  the  present  generation  is 
concerned. 

"The  new  government  of  Mexico  formed  mostly  of 
young  and  progressive  men  who  joined  the  revolution  only 
because  they  thought  it  was  their  duty  to  do  so,  is  con- 
scious of  the  state  of  mind  of  the  country,  as  well  as  of 
Mexico's  duty,  if  Mexico  wants  to  be  considered  as  a 
member  of  the  community  of  civilized  nations. 

"This  government  has  drafted  a  vast  plan  for  the  recon- 
struction and  reorganization  of  the  country,  covering  all 
national  activities. 

"You  may  not  believe  it,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true  that 
all  our  trains  are  running  on  schedule,  that  all  public 
services  are  in  normal  operation,  and  our  crops  this  year 
will  be  the  largest  on  record.  And  as  to  any  anti-foreign 
sentiment,  I  can  assure  you  that  none  exists ;  on  the  con- 
trary there  is  probably  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  no  other 
people  more  hospitable  and  warm-hearted  toward  foreign- 
ers than  the  Mexicans.  I  wish  to  say  that  before  I  came 
to  this  country  I  heard  also  of  an  intense  anti-Mexican 
feeling  prevailing  in  the  United  States,  but  I  wish  to  state 
that  my  two  visits  have  completely  convinced  me  that 
such  sentiment  does  not  exist.  The  same  thing  is  true 
about  Mexico." 

To  be  sure  these  are  only  words,  but  they  are  reassuring 
words  both  because  of  the  sentiments  which  they  express 
and  of  the  evident  sincerity  which  is  back  of  them.  Up 
to  the  time  of  this  writing  we  have  had  no  reason  for 
refusing  to  take  them  at  their  face  value. 

When  the  chairman  introduced  Sefior  Alvarado  at  the 
gathering  mentioned  above,  he  referred  half  humorously 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  under  no  embarrassment  in  enter- 
taining General  Alvarado  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 


THE  "BORDER"  25 

country  had  become  dry,  because  the  visitor  himself  had 
the  distinction  of  being  the  original  prohibitionist  of 
Mexico.  He  went  on  to  explain  that  as  Governor  of 
Yucatan  under  Carranza  General  Alvarado  had  made  that 
state  dry.  Yucatan,  however,  has  not  been  the  only  dry 
spot  in  Mexico,  for  Sonora  at  least  has  been  dry,  or  largely 
so,  for  some  time.  This  condition  existed  under  Governor 
Calles  even  before  de  la  Huerta  became  Governor  of  the 
State.  When  Agua  Prieta  went  dry  a  Chinese  evidently 
did  not  take  the  matter  seriously.  He  opened  a  saloon, 
but  he  was  in  jail  before  night.  A  little  later  saloons  at 
border  points  were  permitted  to  sell  liquor  to  American 
visitors.  This  soon  became  a  nuisance,  however,  and  the 
saloons  of  Sonora  were  tightly  closed  once  more. 

Mexico  still  has  a  long  road  to  travel  before  her  political 
and  social  life  can  be  organized  on  a  genuinely  demo- 
cratic basis.  Education  must  be  extended  and  common 
ideals  inculcated  before  this  can  be  achieved,  but,  although 
no  one  can  foresee  what  accidents  are  in  store,  there  is 
no  apparent  reason  why  Mexico  should  not  travel  this 
road  with  no  more  than  the  ordinary  misadventures.  Al- 
though a  republic  in  name,  Mexico  has  really  had  no 
experience  in  self-government  until  the  last  ten  years, 
and  if  she  has  made  a  good  many  mistakes  she  has  also 
learned  a  good  many  lessons  which  should  be  of  ines- 
timable value  in  the  years  ahead.  As  her  neighbor  we 
are  profoundly  interested  both  from  altruistic  and  selfish 
motives  in  Mexico's  welfare. 

One  of  the  first  matters  which  confronted  the  new  Mex- 
ican government  was  what  to  do  with  Lower  California, 
perhaps  the  one  outstanding  area  where  the  revolution 
did  not  seem  to  "take,"  and  a  region  in  which  Americans 
of  several  sorts  had  become  deeply  interested. 


26    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

While  the  revolution  was  still  in  progress  I  asked  T.  R. 
Beltran,  an  agent  of  the  revolutionists,  "What  do  you 
plan  to  do  with  Lower  California  and  Governor  Cantu?" 

He  replied,  "We  will  give  him  a  chance  to  come  in,  and 
then  if  he  refuses  we  shall  be  obliged  to  go  and  compel 
him  to  come  in." 

In  line  with  this  policy,  the  new  government  very  soon 
sent  word  to  Governor  Cantu  to  come  to  Mexico  City  and 
report.  Now  for  ten  years  Cantu  had  not  been  in  the 
habit  of  reporting  to  anybody,  and  very  naturally  he  did 
not  comply  with  the  demand  of  the  government.  For 
the  first  time  in  many  years,  therefore,  an  expedition  to 
Lower  California  was  organized;  Cantu  was  ousted  from 
his  position  of  authority;  he  departed  for  the  United 
States,  and  LuJs  Salazar  took  control  of  the  "lost  state." 
For  ten  years  the  central  government  of  Mexico  had  been 
too  busy  to  concern  itself  with  Lower  California.  During 
that  time  Esteban  Cantu  went  on  his  way  unmolested  by 
governmental  interference  or  by  revolutionary  uprisings. 
He  built  up  a  little  private  kingdom  within  a  republic, 
and,  naturally,  that  could  not  permanently  continue.  He 
had  a  few  troubles  of  his  own.  At  one  time  considerable 
dissatisfaction  developed  among  the  natives  over  the  im- 
portant concessions  which  Cantu  granted  to  foreigners, 
particularly  the  Chinese  and  Japanese.  By  taking  precau- 
tions, however,  Cantu  was  able  to  ward  off  what  seemed 
like  impending  trouble,  and  to  continue  to  do  pretty  much 
as  he  pleased. 

Lower  California  is  a  mountainous  peninsula  750  miles 
long  and  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  and  forty  miles  wide. 
It  forms  the  most  western  part  of  Mexico  and  comprises 
an  area  of  58,343  square  miles,  or  a  little  more  than  the 
area  of  Wisconsin.  It  is  separated  from  the  rest  of  Mex- 


THE  "BORDER"  27 

ico  by  the  Gulf  of  California,  by  an  almost  impassable 
desert  in  the  western  part  of  Sonora,  and  by  the  Colorado 
River.  Much  of  its  area  is  uninhabited  and  uninhabit- 
able, but  there  are  some  outstanding  exceptions  along  the 
western  coast  and  the  northern  border.  In  1910  the  pop- 
ulation was  52,244.  It  is  doubtless  considerably  larger 
than  that  now  as  the  last  ten  years  have  witnessed  remark- 
able developments  at  several  points.  For  some  time  the 
capital  of  Lower  California  has  been  located  at  Ensenada 
de  Todos  Santos  on  the  west  coast.  A  fine  automobile 
road  runs  from  here  to  Tia  Juana  between  the  ocean  and 
the  mountains,  and  Tia  Juana  just  across  the  line  from 
San  Diego,  California,  is  connected  with  San  Diego  both 
by  trolley  and  by  railroad.  Ensenada,  Tia  Juana,  and 
Mexicali  further  east,  just  across  from  Calexico,  Cali- 
fornia, are  the  three  most  important  places  in  Lower  Cali- 
fornia. The  interest  of  Americans  is  chiefly  in  the  two 
border  points,  Tia  Juana  and  Mexicali. 

Mexicali  on  the  Mexican  side  of  the  line  and  Calexico 
on  the  American  side  form  in  reality  a  single  community 
with  a  combined  population  of  approximately  16,000,  two- 
thirds  of  which  is  on  the  Mexican  side  of  the  line.  Of  the 
total  population  there  are  perhaps  7,000  Mexicans,  4,000 
Chinese  (chiefly  in  Mexicali)  and  5,000  of  American  or 
mixed  stocks.  These  two  towns  lie  in  the  heart  of  the 
rich  Imperial  Valley,  which  has  within  recent  years  been 
transformed  by  the  waters  of  the  Colorado  River  from 
one  of  the  most  absolute  deserts  in  the  world  to  a  verit- 
able garden  spot.  In  1918  the  assessed  valuation  of  the 
irrigated  land  in  this  region  was  approximately  $36,000,- 
ooo;  the  same  year  the  value  of  the  farm  products  was 
$50,000,000.  In  1910  there  were  only  793  people  in 


28    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

Calexico,  and  650  in  Mexicali.  A  very  large  import  and 
export  trade  with  Mexico  has  sprung  up  at  this  point.  In 
1918  this  totaled  $9,521,000,  as  compared  with  $7,877,000 
for  the  five  other  ports  of  the  District  of  Southern  Cali- 
fornia, including  Los  Angeles  and  San  Diego. 

Cotton  is  one  of  the  chief  products  of  this  section,  par- 
ticularly on  the  Mexican  side,  where  Chinese,  who  have 
been  granted  important  concessions  by  Governor  Cantu, 
are  raising  thousands  of  acres  of  cotton.  Large  cotton 
gins  are  located  at  Mexicali.  The  Chinese  who  work 
here  have  come,  many  of  them,  through  the  United  States, 
and  it  is  a  not  uncommon  sight  to  see  a  carload  of  new 
recruits,  landed  at  some  American  port,  but  destined  for 
Lower  California,  passing  through  to  Mexico  in  a  locked 
car  with  heavily  barred  windows. 

The  water  which  renders  productive  the  land  on  the 
Mexican  side  of  the  Border  is  from  the  same  source  as 
that  which  is  used  for  a  similar  purpose  on  the  American 
side.  It  comes  from  the  Colorado  River,  but  it  passes 
down  through  a  portion  of  Mexico  before  it  returns  to 
water  the  Imperial  Valley  in  the  United  States.  This 
fact  has  given  rise  to  many  conjectures  as  to  what  might 
happen  if  we  were  to  get  into  difficulty  with  Mexico,  and 
has  led  to  extended  discussions  in  Congress  concerning 
the  possibility  of  an  "all-American  ditch."  Those  who 
were  watching  this  project  some  years  ago  will  remember 
how  the  river  broke  bounds,  and  for  nearly  two  years 
poured  its  water  down  into  the  Valley,  forming  the  now 
famous  Salton  Sea  and  threatening  to  inundate  the  entire 
region.  President  Roosevelt's  appeal  to  Congress  for 
help  was  unheeded,  and  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad, 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Harriman,  finally  closed  the 
gap,  although  it  involved  running  trains  of  new  steel  cars 


THE  "BORDER"  29 

loaded  with  rocks  and  dumping  them,  cars  and  all,  into 
the  break.  All  of  this  expense  was  later  charged  back 
against  the  land  in  the  Valley. 

Governor  Cantu  had,  however,  other  sources  of  revenue 
than  legitimate  business,  and  he  waxed  fat  under  his  vari- 
ous revenues,  particularly  from  commercialized  vice.  A 
count  in  Mexicali,  while  he  was  in  control,  showed  ten 
pool  rooms,  twenty-one  saloons,  two  Chinese  gambling 
houses  with  lotteries,  one  bull  ring,  and  a  theatre,  gam- 
bling house,  bar  and  house  of  prostitution  combined. 
This  latter  institution,  which  was  owned  and  operated  by 
three  Americans  and  was  directly  controlled  and  managed 
by  one  of  them,  occupied  the  most  conspicuous  square  in 
the  center  of  town.  It  was  said  to  pay  $22,000  per  month 
into  Governor  Cantu's  pocket  as  a  license  fee  and  to  have 
had  a  total  overhead  expense  of  $40,000  per  month.  The 
150  American,  Negro,  and  Mexican  women  housed  here 
paid  a  monthly  license  fee  said  to  be  $27.50  each,  a  daily 
rental  of  two  dollars  each,  and  an  inspection  fee  of  two 
dollars  per  week.  The  principal  owner  of  this  institution 
is  commonly  rated  as  a  millionaire,  and  one  of  his  reported 
stock  remarks  was,  "Every  man  in  the  Imperial  Valley  is 
working  for  me."  During  the  War  this  institution  took 
$70,000  worth  of  Liberty  Bonds  at  one  time. 

The  other  great  center  of  vice  in  Lower  California  was 
Tia  Juana.  Here  a  race  track  and  multitudinous  other  in- 
stitutions attracted  regularly  thousands  of  visitors  who 
either  liked  the  excitement  of  a  place  where  the  "lid  was 
off"  or  who  were  seeking  to  earn  a  living  by  some  ques- 
tionable method.  Transportation  was  made  easy  by  rail- 
road, bus,  and  electric  car  service  from  San  Diego. 
The  whole  situation  was  demoralizing,  both  locally  and 
nationally. 


30    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

One  of  the  finest  things  which  the  new  government  in 
Mexico  has  done  is  to  clean  up  the  resorts  both  here  and 
at  Mexicali,  and  to  declare  its  policy  of  establishing  a 
"dry  zone"  along  the  Border.  Under  the  conditions  which 
have  been  permitted  to  exist  along  the  Border  it  was  hard 
for  Mexico  to  develop  any  feeling  of  respect  for  America 
and  Americans,  and  in  the  same  way  Mexico's  reputation 
suffered  among  Americans  because  of  the  unfavorable 
impression  which  the  Border  presented  of  conditions  in 
Mexico.  The  entire  situation  was  against  the  development 
of  those  wholesome  relations  between  the  two  sides  of 
the  Border  which  should  exist,  if  our  mutual  business, 
social,  and  political  interests  are  to  be  cared  for  and  a 
firm  foundation  laid  for  future  prosperity. 

The  United  States  has  perhaps  been  equally  responsible 
with  Mexico  for  the  unfortunate  conditions  which  have 
existed  at  so  many  points  along  the  Border,  for  we  have 
many  times  furnished  both  the  capital  and  the  patronage 
which  has  made  vice  profitable.  At  any  rate,  we  may  all 
rejoice  at  what  seems  like  the  dawning  of  a  better  day 
with  a  less  murky  atmosphere  for  our  Mexican  Border. 
We  have  a  chance  here  to  help  Mexico  maintain  the  stand- 
ards which  she  has  set  up.  It  is  significant  and  not  par- 
ticularly to  our  credit  that,  when  President  de  la  Huerta 
tried  for  the  first  time  to  limit  the  sale  of  liquor  in  Mexico 
City,  the  American  press  reported  that  the  Mexicans  took 
the  decision  without  protest,  while  Americans  in  the  City 
made  vigorous  protestations  against  this  interference  with 
their  "rights." 

So  far  as  the  United  States  is  concerned,  the  Mexican 
problem  is  inescapable.  It  is  to  our  direct  advantage  to 
see  Mexico  prosper  in  every  way.  Our  relations  with  her 


THE  "BORDER"  31 

must  be  placed  upon  the  sure  foundations  of  morality, 
integrity,  and  Christian  neighborliness.  Everything  that 
makes  for  the  establishment  of  those  conditions  we  may 
well  encourage.  Mexico  has  passed  through  some  difficult 
days  and,  before  these  words  are  read,  some  dissension 
in  her  government  may  threaten  her  peace,  but  in  spite  of 
misadventures  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
leaders  and  the  common  people  of  Mexico  are  tired  of 
turmoil,  and  that  with  our  help  they  stand  ready  to  work 
out  an  altogether  new  future  for  themselves.  Whether 
this  be  true  or  not,  it  is  true  that  the  expulsive  power  of 
the  recent  revolutions  in  Mexico  has  placed  the  Mexican 
in  a  position  to  build  himself  into  the  future  of  our  own 
country  in  quite  a  new  way.  Without  much  ado  he  has 
gone  at  the  job,  and  the  indications  are  that  he  will  "make 
good"  at  it. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  MEXICAN  AT  WORK  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

THE  emigration  of  Mexicans  to  the  United  States  began 
something  over  three  hundred  years  ago.     There  is  no 
record  that  the  stream  has  ever  stopped,  but  it  is  only 
within  the  last  decade  that  the  tiny  rivulet  has  swelled 
to  proportions  sufficient  to  attract  attention.    Since  1911, 
however,  every  overturn  of  the  political  craft  in  Mexico 
has  been  followed  by  the  eager  scramble  of  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  the  survivors  to  find  refuge  in  the  United 
States.     Some  of  these  newcomers  have  been  political 
refugees  who  have  suddenly  discovered  that  the  climate 
of  the  United  States  was  far  more  healthful  and  salubrious 
than  the  climate  of  Mexico,  but  multitudes  of  others  have 
been  simple  Mexican  peons,  who,  for  one  reason  or  an- 
other, have  found  life  intolerable  in  Old  Mexico,  and  have 
been  attracted  by  the  superior  economic  and  educational 
opportunities  which  the  United  States  seemed  to  offer. 
/^     The  wealthier  refugees  have  settled  in  many  centers 
I     from  Los  Angeles,  El  Paso,  San  Antonio,  Laredo  and 
J   other  Border  towns  to  New  York  and  other  eastern  cities. 
^    The  poor  Mexican  has  for  lack  of  means  usually  been 
I      forced  to  make  his  first  stand  at  some  point  close  to  the 
/       Border.     Later,  as  opportunities  have  offered,  he  has 
found  his  way  to  more  distant  regions. 

We  already  had  a  large  Spanish-speaking  element  with 
Mexican  affiliations  and  of  Mexican  extraction  in  our 

32 


THE  MEXICAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    33 

country,  particularly  in  the  Southwest.  Although  the  tra- 
ditions and  environment  of  Spanish-Americans  and  Mex- 
icans are  quite  different  in  many  respects,  yet  in  others 
they  are  almost  identical.  The  mere  fact  that  they  speak 
a  common  language  helps  to  blend  the  two  elements  into 
one  common  group.  Just  how  large  this  group  is,  it  is 
not  easy  to  state.  It  is  frankly  admitted  by  immigration 
officials  that  many  of  these  newcomers  have  entered  the 
United  States  over  unauthorized  paths,  and  no  record 
has,  therefore,  been  kept  of  them.  The  limited  appro- 
priations for  the  Immigration  Bureau  have  made  an  ade- 
quate Border  patrol  impossible.  Possibly  the  zeal  of  of- 
ficials has  also  been  dampened  by  the  fact  that  farmers 
and  ranchers  in  the  Border  states  have  been  very  glad  to 
welcome  Mexican  laborers  regardless  of  the  path  by  which 
they  may  have  arrived.  Once  in  the  United  States  they 
form  a  constantly  shifting  group  very  difficult  to  enumer- 
ate, and  totals  are  further  complicated  by  the  fact  that 
thousands  of  Spanish-Americans  are,  for  census  purposes, 
"Americans  of  American  parentage."  In  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  Mexican  is  legally  a  "white"  man,  his  totals  do 
not  apppear  in  any  race  grouping  based  on  the  color  of 
the  skin. 

The  best  estimate  available  at  the  present  writing  indi- 
cates that  there  are  approximately  1,500,00x3  Mexicans 
and  Spanish-Americans  in  the  United  States  at  present. 
Texas  has  the  largest  group  of  any  of  the  states,  and 
recent  estimates  indicate  that  her  total  population  of  Mex- 
icans and  Spanish-Americans  approximates  450,000.  The 
Secretary  of  State's  office  in  New  Mexico  estimates  that 
the  state  is  at  least  sixty  per  cent  Spanish-American.  This 
would  give  a  total  for  New  Mexico  of  approximately 


34    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

220,000  Spanish-Americans.  A  man  who  has  studied  the 
situation  in  Arizona  for  years  says  that  there  are  more 
than  100,000  in  Arizona,  and  the  Spanish-speaking  pop- 
ulation of  California  has  recently  been  estimated  as  ap- 
proaching 250,000.  Whatever  the  exact  numbers  may 
be,  their  name  is  "legion,"  and  they  are  to  be  found  not 
only  in  our  Border  states  but  by  thousands  in  Colorado, 
Nevada,  Idaho,  Kansas,  Oklahoma,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  New  York,  New  England  and 
in  many  other  states  both  east  and  west.  The  largest 
single  colony  in  the  United  States  is  perhaps  at  San 
Antonio,  Texas,  which  is  said  to  have  a  Mexican  popula- 
tion of  50,000.  El  Paso,  Texas,  is  reported  fifty-five 
per  cent  Mexican,  and  Los  Angeles,  California,  has  a 
Mexican  population  of  30,000. 

During  the  War  the  shortage  of  common  labor  in  the 
Southwest  led  to  the  admission  under  special  permit  of 
otherwise  inadmissible  aliens.  Since  the  war  this  custom 
has  been  continued,  and  three  clauses  of  the  immigration 
law  have  for  the  purpose  been  suspended,  namely,  the  lit- 
eracy test,  the  head  tax,  and  the  contract  labor  clauses. 
Under  this  special  provision  thousands  of  Mexican  labor- 
ers have  been  admitted  to  the  United  States.  A  very 
careful  record  with  a  photograph  of  each  immigrant  thus 
admitted  is  kept  and  the  employer  becomes  responsible  for 
the  return  of  the  immigrant.  In  case  there  is  trouble, 
deportation  may  take  place  at  the  employer's  expense. 
Owing  to  the  admission  of  these  laborers,  vast  areas  of 
irrigated  land  which  would  otherwise  have  remained 
untilled  have  been  producing  bountiful  crops. 

Mexicans  in  the  United  States  have  distinguished  them- 
selves in  a  number  of  fields  of  labor.  Thus  on  the  rail- 
roads of  our  country  they  have  made  a  large  place  for 


THE  MEXICAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     35 

themselves  not  only  in  the  Southwest,  but  from  the  Pa- 
cific Coast  through  to  our  eastern  states.  On  January 
1 3th,  1920,  the  Santa  Fe  Railroad  reported  as  employed 
on  its  Western  Lines  in  the  states  of  Kansas,  Colorado, 
New  Mexico,  Texas,  and  Oklahoma  6,077  Mexicans.  A 
large  proportion  of  these  men  were  employed  on  track 
work,  but  some  were  engaged  in  cleaning  cinder  pits, 
wiping  engines,  cleaning  cars,  icing  cars,  loading  stock 
and  similar  occupations.  Others  were  reported  working 
as  machinists  and  boilermakers,  and  engaged  in  similar 
occupations  in  the  mechanical  department.  At  about  the 
same  time  there  were  reported  on  the  Eastern  Lines  of 
the  same  railroad  approximately  4,200  Mexicans.  About 
ten  per  cent  of  this  number  were  employed  in  the  mechan- 
ical department  in  shops  and  roundhouses  and  the  remain- 
der principally  on  track  work.  This  division  covers  part 
of  Kansas  and  Oklahoma  as  well  as  Missouri  and  Illinois. 
On  the  Coast  Lines  of  the  Santa  Fe  there  were  employed 
about  4,000  Mexicans.  Thus  on  this  one  railroad  some- 
thing over  14,000  Mexicans  were  employed.  The  man- 
ager of  the  Western  Lines  says  of  their  record  as  laborers, 
"While  not  as  energetic  or  competent  as  white  men,  they 
are  as  a  rule  satisfactory  for  track  work  and  other  work 
of  that  nature,  and  probably  more  so  than  other  alien 
labor  which  can  be  secured  for  this  purpose." 

On  the  Pennsylvania  railroad  Mexicans  have  been  em- 
ployed in  limited  numbers  at  various  points  between  New 
York  and  Pittsburgh  and  Buffalo.  The  General  Manager 
of  the  Eastern  Lines  of  this  railroad  says  of  their  work, 
"As  a  class  they  were  among  the  best  track  laborers  of 
any  foreign  nationality."  Numerous  other  railroads,  par- 
ticularly in  the  West  and  the  Southwest,  are  largely 
dependent  upon  Mexican  labor. 


36    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

In  the  growing  of  sugar  beets  the  Mexican  has  become 
next  to  indispensable.  The  new  and  rapidly  developing 
beet  sugar  industry  of  the  United  States  could  never  have 
made  the  enormous  strides  which  it  has  made  in  recent 
years  had  it  not  been  for  Mexican  assistance.  You  may 
travel  from  the  far  western  beet  fields  of  Southern  Cali- 
fornia to  the  northern  areas  of  Idaho  or  the  eastern  beet 
sections  of  Michigan  and  everywhere  you  will  find  Mex- 
icans working  patiently  and  efficiently  in  the  beet  fields, 
driving  the  heavy  wagons  loaded  with  beets  and  assisting 
about  the  beet  sugar  factories.  It  was  largely  to  increase 
the  production  of  sugar  beets  that  the  special  arrangement 
for  the  admission  of  contract  labor  from  Mexico  was 
made.  The  raising  of  sugar  beets  is  of  course  a  seasonal 
occupation,  and  the  introduction  of  Mexican  labor  into 
the  beet  fields  has  brought  with  it  some  of  the  problems 
which  come  with  seasonal  employment.  A  newspaper 
item  dated  October  27,  1919,  at  Pocatello,  Idaho,  tells 
of  the  difficulty  which  Idaho  faces  with  several  thousand 
Mexicans  on  hand  and  nothing  for  them  to  do  after  the 
beet  season  is  over,  and  then  quotes  the  local  federal 
immigration  inspector  as  follows : 

"I'll  be  hanged  if  I  know  what  to  think  of  it,  or  what 
to  do  about  it.  We  need  these  Mexican  laborers  at  cer- 
tain seasons  of  the  year  to  do  work  that  American  laborers 
will  not  do.  They  are  needed  and  needed  badly  to  culti- 
vate the  beets  and  to  harvest  them.  They  were  brought 
here  under  a  special  agreement  with  the  labor  department 
in  1918  to  save  the  sugar  beet  crop.  It  was  agreed  that 
they  were  to  have  the  same  wages  paid  to  other  laborers, 
and  this  looked  big  to  them.  But  their  work  only  lasts 
a  few  weeks  in  the  early  summer  and  another  few  weeks 
in  the  late  fall.  They  begin  weeding  beets  in  the  latter 


THE  MEXICAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     37 

part  of  May  or  June  ist,  and  when  beet  harvest  comes  on 
they  have  worked  up  to  about  the  middle  of  November. 
What  are  they  to  do  between  these  periods  ?  They  cannot 
earn  enough  to  live  a  year  on  these  few  weeks'  work." 

Similar  situations  exist  in  Colorado,  Wyoming,  Utah, 
Iowa,  Nebraska,  and  other  states,  but  that  does  not  change 
the  fact  that  the  Mexican  has  made  a  large  place  for  him- 
self in  the  sugar  beet  industry  which  is  to-day  supplying 
millions  of  pounds  of  sugar  for  domestic  consumption  in 
the  United  States. 

In  Southern  California  the  Mexican  does  not,  however, 
confine  his  activities  to  the  sugar  beet  industry.    He  may 
be  seen  working  in  the  orange  orchards,  helping  in  the 
large  groves  of  English  walnut  trees,  or  dominating  the 
lima  bean  enterprise  of  the  immense  "lima  bean  empire" 
of  that  rich  state.     In  fact,  there  is  hardly  a  fruit  or  a 
vegetable  of  any  sort  in  California  in  the  production  or 
distribution  of  which  the  Mexican  is  not  having  a  part. 
Around  Los  Angeles  and  other  centers  Mexicans  have) 
recently  been  employed  in  the  raising  of  flowers  for  the  S 
floral  trade,  and  it  has  been  discovered  that  they  are( 
exceptionally  well  adapted  to  this  fine  art. 

In  this  connection  a  prominent  florist  of  California 
says: 

"Mexicans  are  coming  to  be  the  finest  florists  that  we 
can  secure.  The  Japanese  and  Belgians,  both  specifically 
trained  in  their  countries  to  do  this  work,  are  not  as  good 
as  the  Mexicans.  Several  nurseries  and  florists,  that  I 
know  of,  are  turning  off  their  Japanese  and  other  em- 
ployees and  are  taking  on  Mexicans." 

In  many  states  of  the  West,  such  as  Arizona,  New 
Mexico,  Texas,  Colorado  and  the  states  farther  north, 


38    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

Mexican  cowboys  care  for  uncounted  thousands  of  cattle ; 
and  Mexican  herders  tend  multitudes  of  sheep.  The 
loneliness  of  this  latter  occupation  has  few  terrors  for 
the  Mexican,  and  he  will  uncomplainingly  take  his  sheep 
out  into  the  wilderness  and  care  for  them  alone  when 
other  workmen  will  refuse  to  undertake  the  task.  Thus 
the  Mexican  is  having  a  large  part  in  the  production  of 
the  wool  for  our  clothing,  the  leather  for  our  shoes  and 
the  beef  for  the  nourishment  of  our  bodies. 

At  mining  the  Mexican  is  particularly  skillful.  An 
American  who  has  for  many  years  been  mining  with  Mex- 
icans describes  them  as  "natural  miners."  In  coal,  copper, 
gold,  silver,  and  many  other  sorts  of  mining  projects  in 
the  West  and  Southwest  the  Mexican  is  playing  an 
important  part. 

Possibly  no  single  state  has  profited  so  generously  from 
Mexican  labor  as  has  Texas.  This  state  is  now  at  the 
very  head  of  the  procession  of  agricultural  states,  and 
the  thing  which  has  made  this  rapid  advance  possible  has 
been  Mexican  labor.  In  1919  Texas  ranked  third  among 
the  states  in  the  production  of  corn,  with  202,800,000 
bushels  to  her  credit.  At  the  same  time  Texas  produced 
2,700,000  bales  of  cotton,  or  more  than  one-fifth  of  the 
total  national  crop.  And  Texas  realizes  her  indebtedness 
to  the  Mexican.  John  B.  Carrington,  Secretary  of  the 
San  Antonio  Chamber  of  Commerce,  is  quoted  by  Gerald 
B.  Breitigam  as  saying  in  this  connection: 

"We  couldn't  do  it  if  we  didn't  have  the  labor.  Yes, 
3ir,  we  are  dependent  upon  the  Mexican  farm  labor  supply 
and  we  know  it.  Mexican  farm  labor  is  rapidly  proving 
the  making  of  this  state." 

In  many  places  in  Texas  the  Mexican  has  entirely  dis- 


THE  MEXICAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     39 

placed  the  Negro  or  made  his  services  unnecessary,  and 
his  activities  in  agriculture  are  not  limited  to  any  one 
crop.  Recently  a  town  in  Southern  Texas  announced  that 
for  the  1920  season  it  had  already  shipped  1,058  carloads 
of  Bermuda  onions,  and  the  season  was  only  partly  over. 
Practically  all  of  these  onions  were  produced  by  Mexican 
labor.  In  a  similar  way  the  Mexican  shared  in  the  pro- 
duction of  Texas'  many  other  crops.  Surely  these  facts 
are  of  national  significance  at  a  time  when  foodstuffs  are 
well-nigh  prohibitive  in  price. 

Possibly  one  of  the  most  interesting  projects  dependent 
upon  Mexican  labor  in  the  United  States  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Salt  River  Valley  of  Arizona.  A  few  years  ago 
this  valley  was  as  utter  and  absolute  a  desert  as  could 
be  found  in  any  part  of  the  United  States;  to-day  there 
are  few  places  more  productive.  The  backbone  of  this 
project  is  the  Roosevelt  Dam  and  the  water  for  irrigation 
which  it  supplies.  This  dam,  begun  September  20,  1906, 
and  completed  February  5,  1911,  is  284  feet  high.  It 
not  only  supplies  the  water  which  is  fed  out  to  the  thirsty 
land  in  the  valley  through  some  800  miles  of  main  canals, 
but  it  also  is  the  means  of  creating  thousands  of  horse- 
power of  electric  current.  This  current  is  used,  among 
other  things,  to  pump  still  more  water  from  wells  in  the 
valley,  so  that  altogether  there  are  300,000  acres  of  irri- 
gated land  in  the  valley.  It  is  predicted  that  by  1921  this 
area  will  be  increased  to  400,000  acres.  On  these  acres 
many  crops  are  grown,  including  alfalfa,  cotton,  barley, 
corn,  wheat,  oats,  sorghum,  cantaloupes,  oranges,  grape- 
fruit, olives,  apricots,  peaches,  Irish  potatoes,  sweet  pota- 
toes, lettuce,  beans,  and  small  fruit.  For  some  years  cot- 
ton has  been  the  largest  single  crop.  In  1917  16,200  bales 
were  raised,  in  1918  there  were  34,000  bales  and  in  1919 


40    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

60,000  bales.  In  1919  more  than  90,000  acres  of  land 
were  devoted  to  the  raising  of  cotton  here;  in  1920  this 
acreage  had  increased  to  nearly  150,000  acres,  and  the 
yield  will  be  proportionately  enlarged.  The  cotton  grown 
here  is  known  as  "Pima"  cotton.  It  is  a  sport  developed 
from  Egyptian  cotton  introduced  by  the  United  States 
government  for  experimental  purposes.  The  fiber  is  un- 
usually long  and  fine,  with  the  result  that  this  cotton  is 
eagerly  sought  after  for  making  the  fabric  of  automobile 
tires,  aeroplane  and  balloon  materials,  and  mercerized 
goods.  Automobile  tire  concerns  have  already  invested 
millions  of  dollars  in  the  growing  of  cotton  in  this 
Valley.  In  February,  1920,  this  cotton  sold  as  high  as 
97/^2  cents  per  pound.  The  cotton  crop  for  the  season 
1919-1920  was  valued  at  $20,000,000  and  the  total  prod- 
ucts for  the  valley  at  $45,000,000.  The  other  shipments 
included  200  carloads  of  lettuce,  1,900  carloads  of  canta- 
loupes and  many  other  things. 

The  significant  fact  for  our  present  purposes,  however, 
is  that  millions  of  dollars  of  invested  capital  are  here  de- 
pendent for  their  productiveness  upon  Mexican  labor. 
Added  to  the  Spanish-speaking  laborers  already  available, 
thousands  of  contract  laborers  have  been  shipped  into  this 
region.  During  the  winter  of  1919-1920  4,000  of  these 
workers  were  retained  throughout  the  winter,  lest  the 
same  conditions  of  return  might  not  be  permitted  during 
the  spring  of  1920.  It  developed  that  the  special  plan  for 
admitting  laborers  was  continued,  but  there  was  work  on 
roads  and  construction  projects  sufficient  during  the 
winter  to  keep  the  thousands  who  were  retained  busy,  so 
there  was  no  loss.  In  fact,  it  was  felt  that  it  would  be 
worth  while  to  feed  these  Mexicans  during  the  winter  at 
the  expense  of  the  growers  rather  than  to  run  the  risk 


THE  MEXICAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     41 

of  losing  their  assistance  the  following  year,  for  as  one 
grower  employing  forty-five  families  of  Mexicans  said, 
"We  would  go  bankrupt  at  once  without  the  Mexicans." 

The  list  of  occupations  in  which  Mexicans  are  to  be 
found  in  increasing  numbers  is  almost  limitless.  There 
are  Mexican  storekeepers,  laundrymen,  barbers,  clerks, 
chauffeurs,  printers,  streets  weepers,  newsvenders,  boot- 
blacks, window-cleaners,  gardeners,  cobblers,  expressmen, 
meat-cutters,  scrub-women,  factory  workers,  ranchers, 
teamsters,  carpenters,  plumbers,  and  many  others.  Nor 
does  this  complete  the  list.  One  of  the  leading,  if  not  the 
leading  surgeon  in  a  large  Southwestern  city  is  a  Mexican 
Indian.  f^A.  recent  Governor  of  a  Southwestern  state 
is  a  Mexican  by  birth  and  an  American  by  adoption. 
There  are  Mexican  or  Mex-American  judges,  state  leg- 
islators, lawyers,  ministers,  social  workers,  court  report- 
ersTand  teachers.  It  is  perhaps  fair  to  say  that  there  is 
not  an  individual  in  the  United  States  who  is  not  directly 
or  indirectly  indebted  to  the  Mexicans  who  have  crossed 
the  Border  and  who  are  at  work  in  the  United  States. 
Surely  every  one  of  us  would  feel  the  pinch  of  it  if  the 
Mexican  should  by  some  mysterious  process  be  suddenly 
removed  from  our  midst.  Proceeding  humbly,  quietly, 
and  unheralded,  he  has  made  himself  indispensable  to  our 
welfare. 

And  these  Mexicans  who  do  so  many  different  things 
for  us  are  as  a  class  good  workers.  One  man  who  had 
been  employing  Mexican  labor  on  a  large  scale  for  twenty- 
seven  years  said  in  reply  to  a  question  relative  to  hia 
opinion  of  Mexican  labor,  "If  any  one  tries  to  tell 
that  the  Mexican  is  not  a  good  worker,  you  may  tell  him  7" 
for  me  that  he  does  not  know  what  he  is  talking  about."  j 
Another  man  employing  a  large  number  of  Mexicans  in- 


42    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

the  raising  of  cotton  was  asked  what  he  thought  of  Mex- 
ican labor  and  why  he  did  not  endeavor  to  get  Negro  help. 
He  replied,  "The  Mexican  is  a  good,  faithful  worker, 
always  quiet  and  orderly,  and  we  would  not  for  a  moment 
think  of  exchanging  him  for  Negro  help."  Similar  tes- 
timony comes  from  many  different  sources. 

The  Mexican  who  comes  across  the  international  line 
to  work  in  the  United  States  does  not,  however,  come 
alone.  He  brings  his  wife  and  family  with  him.  This  is 
true  Mexican  custom,  for  the  Mexican  has  been  accus- 
tomed to  take  his  women  folks  along  to  provide  food, 
even  when  he  has  been  serving  in  the  army.  It  is  quite 
different  from  the  custom  of  immigrants  from  many  other 
countries.  Possibly  the  nearness  of  Mexico  to  the  United 
States  and  the  ease  with  which  the  journey  across  the 
line  can  be  made  have  something  to  do  with  the  matter. 
On  a  recent  visit  to  an  immigration  office  on  the  Border, 
a  card  picked  at  random  from  the  files  showed  that  the 
Mexican  'whose  record  it  contained  had  brought  with  him 
a  wife  and  nine  children  into  the  United  States.  This 
instance  is  more  or  less  typical,  for  the  Mexican  families 
are  large.  A  group  of  Mexican  laborers,  therefore,  means 
at  once  a  new  Mexican  settlement  in  the  United  States 
or  an  old  one  enlarged,  and  since  an  overwhelming  propor- 
tion of  the  Mexicans  who  come  into  the  country  are  very 
poor  various  social  problems  are  more  or  less  inevitable 
in  every  Mexican  colony. 

When  the  average  Mexican  immigrant  arrives  he  brings 
little  or  nothing  with  him  except  the  clothes  on  his  back, 
yet  what  he  brings  represents  his  entire  earthly  posses- 
sions. He  finds  himself  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  the 
language  of  which  he  does  not  understand.  Of  course 
the  fact  that  many  of  his  fellow-countrymen  have  pre- 


ceded  him  helps  him  at  this  point  as  at  others.  He  moves 
into  the  cheapest  shack  which  he  can  find,  or  he  shares 
the  already  overcrowded  space  allotted  to  a  previously 
arriving  immigrant.  One  case  of  this  kind  which  came 
to  the  writer's  attention  recently  was  that  of  a  family  of 
eleven  living  in  one  room,  the  use  of  which  was  donated 
free  by  a  poor  Mexican  woman  whose  heart  was  touched 
by  the  need  of  a  fellow-Mexican.  Even  when  a  place  of 
abode  is  found  the  difficulties  of  the  newcomer  are  not 
ended.  Unless  he  is  a  contract  laborer  brought  in  by  an 
employer  who  immediately  needs  his  services,  he  must  at 
once  find  employment  in  order  to  supply  the  necessities  of 
life  to  himself  and  his  family.  If  he  is  in  the  city,  he 
may  go  to  an  employment  office  conducted  by  some  church 
or  other  social  agency,  and  there  be  told  of  a  place  where 
help  is  needed.  He  takes  the  address  and  starts  out,  but 
his  timidity,  his  ignorance  of  the  English  language,  and 
his  general  inexperience  make  it  impossible  for  him  to 
find  the  place  toward  which  he  is  supposed  to  be  bound. 
This  circumstance  happens  often  enough  to  make  it  a  real 
problem  for  volunteer  employment  agencies  which  are  en- 
deavoring to  be  of  service  to  the  Mexican  immigrant. 
Thus  in  many  ways  the  path  of  the  newly-arrived  Mexican 
in  the  United  States  is  far  from  a  rosy  one.  If  perchance 
the  situation  is  complicated  by  sickness  in  the  family  or 
of  the  bread-winner  himself,  the  entire  family  is  at  once 
reduced  to  desperate  straits. 

The  houses  which  the  Mexican  finds  available  for  his 
occupancy  when  he  arrives  are  for  the  most  part  small 
adobe  huts  or  wooden  shacks.  Now,  it  must  not  be 
thought  that  adobe  in  itself  is  necessarily  an  inferior 
building  material  for  use  in  a  dry  climate,  for  some  of 
the  best  buildings  in  the  Southwest  are  of  adobe  construe- 


44    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

tion,  but  a  one-room  adobe  hut  with  a  dirt  floor  is  a  no 
more  suitable  place  for  establishing  a  home  than  is  a 
wooden  shack  under  the  same  conditions.  When  the  num- 
ber of  rooms  is  increased  to  two,  or  three,  or  four,  the 
situation  is  of  course  by  that  much  improved.  Tens  of 
thousands  of  these  little  homes  occupied  by  Mexicans  and 
Spanish-Americans  may  be  seen  scattered  throughout  the 
Southwest.  In  the  cities  the  situation  is  often  not  ma- 
terially different,  except  that  congestion  tends  to  be  in- 
creased both  as  to  the  houses  themselves  and  as  to  the 
number  of  individuals  living  in  a  particular  house.  Here 
the  house  court,  the  remodeled  residence,  and  the  shack 
rented  at  exorbitant  rentals  abound.  A  recent  study  of 
the  housing  situation  among  Mexicans  in  Los  Angeles 
showed  that  one  per  cent  of  the  families  lived  in  one-room 
houses,  two  per  cent  in  two-room  houses,  twenty-four  per 
cent  in  three-room  houses,  thirty  per  cent  in  four-room 
houses,  and  twenty  per  cent  in  five-room  houses.  This 
condition  represented  an  improvement  over  the  situation 
revealed  by  a  survey  in  1912  when  eighteen  per  cent  of 
the  people  were  reported  as  living  in  one-room  houses  and 
sixty  per  cent  in  two-room  houses.  In  spite  of  improve^ 
ment,  housing  conditions  in  the  Mexican  quarter  of  Los 
Angeles  are  very  bad  and  they  are  perhaps  fairly  typical 
of  conditions  to  be  found  in  other  congested  city  centers/ 
where  Mexicans  are  dwelling.  In  Los  Angeles  twen 
eight  per  cent  of  the  habitations  studied  had  no  sinks, 
thirty-two  per  cent  had  no  lavatories  in  the  houses,  and 
seventy-nine  per  cent  had  no  baths.  Of  these  houses  only 
five  per  cent  were  classed  by  the  Housing  Commission  as 
good;  more  than  half  were  rated  as  poor  or  very  bad. 
In  spite  of  unsatisfactory  conditions,  rents  have  been  rap- 


THE  MEXICAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     45 

idly  advanced  until  the  housing  problem  has  become  a 
serious  one  for  the  Mexican  in  more  aspects  than  one. 

The  food  of  the  Mexican  is  on  the  same  unsatisfactory 
level  as  are  his  housing  conditions.  Often  this  is  due  to 
dire  poverty;  possibly  more  often  to  ignorance  concerning 
the  simplest  facts  related  to  an  adequate  diet.  Every- 
where throughout  the  Southwest  the  Mexican  is  a  steady 
and  consistent  consumer  of  beans.  Beans  form  the  staple 
article  of  diet,  and,  under  unfortunate  conditions,  the  only 
article.  Under  better  conditions  the  beans  are  supple- 
mented by  tortillas,  coffee,  chili,  and  meat  when  it  can  be 
secured.  Owing  to  the  warm  climate,  flies  and  other  un- 
sanitary conditions,  even  this  is  not  always  wholesome. 
Unfortunately  the  Mexican  in  the  United  States  appears 
to  consume  very  few  dairy  products.  He  uses  very  little 
milk,  no  butter,  and  only  a  small  amount  of  cheese.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  much  of  the  sickness  among  the 
Mexicans  and  the  apparent  lack  of  energy  at  times  is  due 
to  insufficient  nourishment.  Social  workers  tell  of  sick 
babies  covered  with  sores  made  well  in  a  short  space  of 
time  merely  by  changing  the  diet  from  beans  to  milk, 
and  boarding-school  superintendents  tell  of  remarkable 
physical  transformations  on  the  part  of  pupils  with  an  ac- 
companying rebirth  of  animal  spirits  merely  by  the  change 
from  the  home  food  to  the  more  adequate  diet  of  the 
school  dining-room.  One  of  the  outstanding  needs  of  the 
Mexican  in  the  Southwest  is  some  definite  instruction  in 
food  values  and  some  training  in  the  preparation  of  food- 
stuffs. To  some  extent  the  schools  are  beginning  to  ren- 
der a  real  ministry  at  this  point  among  the  boys  and  girls, 
but  as  yet  only  a  beginning  has  been  made.  As  to  the 
matter  of  actual  relief  some  social  centers  already  give 


out  milk  daily  to  children  and  to  tuberculosis  sufferers  and 
others. 

Naturally  the  entire  question  of  health  is  closely  bound 
up  with  that  of  food  and  housing.  It  is  not  to  be  expected 
that,  with  unsatisfactory  and  unsanitary  houses  and  with 
poor  and  inadequate  food,  the  health  of  Mexicans  will  be 
of  the  best.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  disease  is  prevalent  and 
the  death  rate  is  high.  Thus  in  Los  Angeles  it  was  dis- 
covered that  while  the  rate  of  infant  mortality  for  the  City 
as  a  whole  was  54  to  1,000,  the  rate  for  Mexican  babies 
was  152  to  1,000.  In  other  words,  a  Mexican  baby  born 
in  Los  Angeles  has  just  one-third  the  chance  to  survive 
as  has  the  average  baby  for  the  entire  city.  Of  the  total 
deaths  for  the  City  of  Los  Angeles  for  the  year  1918- 
1919  1 1. 1  per  cent  were  deaths  of  Mexicans,  although  the 
Mexican  population  of  the  city  was  only  five  per  cent  of 
the  total  population.  Tuberculosis  is  one  of  the  prevalent 
diseases,  and  a  tuberculosis  map  of  Los  Angeles  coincides 
in  important  details  to  a  map  showing  the  Mexican  resi- 
dence section  of  the  city.  The  causes  given  for  these  un- 
satisfactory health  conditions  are  the  low  wage,  poor  and 
insufficient  food,  overcrowding  and  lack  of  ventilation, 
lack  of  facilities  for  cleanliness,  ignorance  in  regard  to 
personal  hygiene,  and  the  prevalence  of  flies.  In  other 
sections  of  the  Southwest  social  diseases  are  prevalent  and 
much  suffering  is  caused  by  them.  — , 

The  entire  question  of  wages  has  a  large  bearing  upon  / 
living  conditions.     The  Los  Angeles  study  showed  that/ 
seventy-two  per  cent  of  all  the  Mexicans  employed  in  the 
city  were  working  as  laborers;  fourteen  per  cent  were 
listed  as  skilled  workers ;  seven  per  cent  as  in  the  profes-  \ 
sions;  and  five  per  cent  were  reported  as  unemployed. 
Before  the  war  daily  wages  were  as  low  as  $1.60.    More 


THE  MEXICAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES    47 

recent  studies  show  the  average  wage  of  the  Mexican 
laborer  in  Los  Angeles  as  $3.45  per  day.  Inquiries  in 
different  parts  of  the  Southwest  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  daily  wages  for  laborers  varied  from  approximately 
$2.50  to  $4.00.  Sheep  herders  are  paid  in  certain  sections 
from  $90  to  $110  per  month  and  other  ranch  labor  is 
secured  for  less  than  that  amount.  In  the  mild  climate 
of  many  parts  of  the  Southwest  wages  go  farther  than 
they  would  in  a  more  rigorous  climate,  but  it  should  also 
be  remembered  that  employment  is  by  no  means  constant, 
and  that  often  the  earnings  of  a  few  weeks  must  be  made 
to  stretch  over  much  longer  periods  or  else  seasons  of 
want  soon  follow  those  of  plenty  for  the  Mexican  house- 
hold. The  fact  that  so  many  of  the  Mexicans  in  the 
United  States  are  poor  does  not  by  any  means  necessarily 
imply  that  they  are  by  nature  improvident.  It  often 
simply  registers  an  income  inadequate  to  cover  the  needs 
of  a  large  and  growing  family.  Some  means  of  giving 
more  constant  employment  to  seasonal  labor  must  be 
worked  out  before  the  Mexican  will  have  a  fair  economic 
chance  at  life.  In  spite  of  untoward  conditions,  however, 
our  entire  Southwest  is  dotted  with  little  homes  of  many 
sorts,  purchased,  paid  for  and  owned  by  Mexicans  and 
Spanish- Americans. 

For  the  most  part  there  has  been  little  organized  dis' 
content  on  the  part  of  Mexican  laborers  in  the  United 
States,  although  agitators  and  propagandists  of  many 
sorts  have  been  at  work  among  them.  It  was  recently 
reported  that  the  I.  W.  W.  headquarters  in  Chicago  had 
three  Mexican  and  Spanish  editors  busily  engaged  in  pre- 
paring and  sending  out  inflammatory  literature  to  the 
Southwest  and  into  other  important  Spanish-speaking 
centers.  The  very  ignorance  of  the  Mexican  furnishes 


48    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

a  fertile  field  for  this  sort  of  propaganda,  and  it  is  hard 
to  tell  what  may  come  of  it  unless  it  is  counteracted  by 
just  and  sympathetic  treatment,  by  persistent  education, 
and  by  an  intelligent  effort  to  alleviate  unsatisfactory 
conditions. 

•M 

For  those  who  have  been  accustomed  to  think  of  the 
Mexican  as  somewhat  of  a  bandit  or  brigand  it  is  not 
altogether  easy  to  picture  him  as  a  timid,  quiet,  peaceable, 
polite,  and  kindly  person  who  will  go  out  of  his  way  to 
avoid  trouble,  yet  the  latter  picture  is  perhaps  more  ac-j 
curate  than  the  former  so  far  as  the  Mexican  in  tl 
United  States  is  concerned.  When  trouble  does  conie 
the  Mexican  sometimes  takes  matters  into  his  own  ham 
and  inflicts  such  retribution  upon  his  enemy  as  he  sees  fit. 
This  is  not  particularly  surprising  when  we  remember  j 
that  he  has  for  years  been  living  in  a  land  where  orderl} 
processes  of  law  have  been  far  from  thoroughly  estab-\ 
lished.  Even  such  conflicts,  however,  are  usually  of  Mex-  \ 
ican  with  Mexican  rather  than  of  Mexican  with  Ameri-  j 
can.  So  far  as  we  have  the  facts,  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  as  a  peaceful,  law-abiding  member  of  the 
community  the  Mexican  ranks  well  with  the  native-born 
American.  Thus  in  the  City  of  Los  Angeles  in  the  year 
1919  the  percentage  of  Mexican  arrests  to  the  total  num- 
ber of  arrests  for  the  entire  city  was  5.5  per  cent  in  a 
population  which  is  five  per  cent  Mexican.  It  is  evident 
that  the  ratios  here  were  not  appreciably  different.  Of 
the  total  arrests  34.9  per  cent  were  for  drunkenness.  Of 
the  962  cases  of  drunkenness,  780  occcurred  before  July 
1st  when  war-time  prohibition  went  into  effect;  during 
June  of  that  year  142  Mexicans  were  arrested  for  drunk- 
enness and  during  July  only  nineteen.  Other  offenses 
charged  against  Mexicans  were  violation  of  traffic  regu- 


THE  MEXICAN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES     49 

lations,  vagrancy,  petty  larceny,  disturbing  the  peace,  and 
burglary.  These  were  the  most  numerous  violations 
charged. 

On  the  other  hand,  twenty-three  per  cent  of  all  appli- 
cants for  relief  at  the  County  Charities  in  Los  Angeles 
were  Mexicans.  Thus  one-twentieth  of  the  people  fur- 
nished practically  one-fourth  of  the  charity  cases.  The 
causes  making  for  poverty  in  these  cases  were  reported 
in  order  of  importance  as  follows :  Acute  illness,  chronic 
physical  disability,  death  of  bread  winner,  old  age,  tuber- 
culosis, desertion,  insufficient  employment,  death  in  fam- 
ily, non-support,  maternity,  intemperance,  imprisonment, 
insanity,  accident  (general),  unable  to  locate,  industrial 
incompetency,  blindness,  poorly  paid  employment,  feeble 
minded,  accident  (industrial).  The  earnings  of  men  in 
this  poverty  group  ran  as  low  as  $1.25  per  day.  The 
Mexican  in  poverty  is  more  the  victim  of  accident  and 
unfortunate  circumstances  than  of  intentional  error. 
Added  to  that  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  every  unscrupulous 
exploiter  from  the  rent  gouger  and  the  profiteer  in  food- 
stuffs and  other  necessities  of  life  to  the  seller  of  enlarged 
photographs  and  useless  bric-a-brac.  Nothing  but  the 
diligent  neighborliness  of  Americans  in  the  communities 
in  which  he  lives  will  protect  the  Mexican  from  the  multi- 
tude of  enemies  and  carefully-laid  snares  which  beset  his 
path  as  he  endeavors  to  establish  himself  in  the  new  land 
to  which  he  has  come  and  in  whose  interests  he  is  laboring 
so  diligently. 


CHAPTER  III 

SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN   NEW   MEXICO 

NEW  MEXICO,  one  of  our  youngest  states,  is  probably 
more  thoroughly  dominated  by  a  non- Anglo- Saxon,  non- 
English-speaking  citizenry  than  any  other  state  in  the 
Union.  The  circumstances  which  have  brought  this 
unique  distinction  to  the  state  are  deeply  imbedded  in  the 
events  of  the  past,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  the 
present  situation  in  this  large  and  increasingly  important 
commmonwealth  unless  we  pause  to  consider  something 
of  its  history. 

When  Cortes  and  his  followers  were  conquering  Mex- 
ico as  early  as  1519  they  kept  hearing  from  the  natives 
of  a  "fair  land"  to  the  north,  but  for  the  moment  their 
attention  was  confined  to  the  conquest  of  that  part  of 
"New  Spain"  which  was  more  distinctly  tributary  to  the 
present  Mexico  City.  In  the  year  1527  Panfilo  de  Nar- 
vaez,  the  Spanish  soldier  and  conquistador,  was  given  a 
grant  authorizing  him  to  explore  and  to  govern  all  that 
part  of  New  Spain  which  extended  from  Florida  west- 
ward through  all  of  the  territory  occupied  by  our  present 
Gulf  States  and  on  to  and  including  the  present  state  of 
New  Mexico,  Texas  and  the  northern  part  of  Mexico. 
This  Narvaez  expedition  started  from  Spain  June  17, 
1 527.  It  landed  on  the  coast  of  Florida  and  started  west- 
ward. Misled  by  Indian  guides,  entangled  in  the  swamps, 
suffering  from  hunger  and  deprivation,  attacked  by  hostile 

So 


SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN  NEW  MEXICO    51 

natives,  and  finally  shipwrecked  on  hastily  constructed 
boats,  the  expedition  collapsed  and  Narvaez  himself  died 
before  New  Mexico  was  reached.  Nine  years  after  this 
expedition  started  from  Spain  a  few  survivors  made  their 
way  down  through  Texas  and  Mexico  to  Mexico  City, 
where  they  arrived  July  24,  1536.  Three  years  later 
(1539)  friar  Marcus  de  Niza,  an  Italian  missionary  who 
had  become  a  Franciscan  monk  and  had  entered  the  serv- 
ice of  Spain,  left  the  City  of  Mexico  to  explore  the  coun- 
try now  included  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  He  had 
with  him  a  Negro,  one  of  the  survivors  of  the  ill-fated 
Narvaez  expedition.  (  Some  historians  say  that  survivors 
of  this  expedition  entered  New  Mexico  under  the  leader- 
ship of  De  Vaca  after  the  death  of  Narvaez.  Others  insist 
even  more  strongly  that  there  is  no  evidence  to  indicate 
that  any  of  the  Narvaez  party  reached  as  far  west  and 
north  as  New  Mexico.)  It  is  said  that  Marcos  sent  the 
Negro  ahead  of  him  with  the  instruction  that  if  he  dis- 
covered a  mean  thing  he  was  to  send  a  white  cross  one 
handful  long,  if  a  greater  thing  a  white  cross  two  handfuls 
long,  and  if  a  very  great  thing  a  large  cross.  The  story 
goes  on  to  relate  that  the  Negro  kept  the  natives  busy 
carrying  crosses  taller  than  a  man  back  to  Marcos.  The 
party  reached  at  least  as  far  as  the  pueblos  of  the  Zuni 
Indians.  The  Negro,  however,  adopted  high-handed 
methods  in  dealing  with  the  natives,  and  he  was  at  last 
killed  by  them  for  appropriating  property  and  women  not 
his  own.  Friar  Marcos  returned  home  with  glowing 
accounts  of  the  country  and  the  things  which  he  had  seen. 
The  following  year  (1540)  Francisco  Vasquez  Coro- 
nado  was  appointed  Governor  of  the  Province  of  "New 
Galicia,"  and  he  organized  an  expedition  for  the  conquest 
of  the  "Seven  Cities  of  Cibola,"  which  friar  Marcos 


52    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

claimed  to  have  discovered.  A  large  force  of  mounted 
men,  infantry,  and  natives,  well-armed  and  well-supplied 
with  food,  set  out  for  the  north.  When  Coronado 
reached  the  Zuni  country  he  sent  expeditions  both  east 
and  west  to  explore  the  country.  The  western  expedition 
went  as  far  as  the  Grand  Canyon  and  the  eastern  expedi- 
tion explored  parts  of  New  Mexico.  The  Zunis  were 
rather  anxious  to  get  rid  of  Coronado  so  they  told  him 
wonderful  stories  of  a  rich  land  farther  on  toward  the 
east.  They  gladly  furnished  a  guide  and  Coronado  de- 
parted. The  country  got  more  and  more  barren  as  they 
progressed,  and  after  long  and  weary  wanderings  they 
hanged  their  guide,  who  had  at  last  confessed  his  decep- 
tion. The  party  returned  to  the  Rio  Grande  River  and 
later  to  Mexico.  Coronado  was  permitted  to  resign  his 
position  as  Governor  of  New  Galicia,  for  as  a  ruler  he 
had  not  proved  particularly  successful.  As  an  explorer, 
however,  he  had  covered  a  great  amount  of  territory  from 
the  Grand  Canyon  on  the  west  to  Kansas  and  Indian 
Territory  on  the  east,  and  north  as  far  as  the  present  state 
of  Colorado.  Concerning  all  this  territory  he  brought 
back  much  interesting  information. 

Other  Spanish  explorers  entered  the  territory,  but  it 
was  not  until  the  coming  of  Don  Juan  de  Onate  with  700 
men  and  130  families  that  a  settlement  was  established. 
This  settlement  was  made  September  5th,  1598,  at 
Chamita.  Chamita  was  abandoned  in  1605  and  the  settle- 
ment moved  to  Santa  Fe.  The  Spaniards  succeeded  in 
conquering  and  enslaving  the  Pueblo  Indians  who  occu- 
pied the  country,  and  with  their  assistance  they  developed 
the  mining,  agricultural,  grazing  and  other  interests  of 
the  region  for  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  century.  In 
1680,  however,  the  Indians  revolted.  They  burned  ranch 


SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN  NEW  MEXICO    53 

houses,  destroyed  other  property  and  finally  besieged  the 
Spanish  Governor  in  the  old  Governor's  Palace  at  Santa 
Fe.  On  August  2ist  the  Governor  was  forced  to  retreat 
and  move  southward.  In  October  of  the  same  year 
(1680)  he  reached  El  Paso  with  a  company  of  1,946 
individuals,  which  included  300  friendly  Indians.  During 
this  rebellion  401  persons,  including  78  soldiers  and  20 
priests,  were  killed. 

For  the  next  twelve  years  (16801692)  the  Pueblos 
again  controlled  Santa  Fe  and  they  did  their  best  to  wipe 
out  all  traces  of  the  Spanish  domination.  Spanish  rec- 
ords were  burned,  Spanish  mines  were  obliterated,  the 
Spanish  language  was  prohibited,  and  even  the  use  of 
seeds  introduced  by  the  Spaniards  was  no  longer  per- 
mitted. This  continued  until  1692,  when  De  Vargas  was 
appointed  Governor  of  the  "lost  province."  With  an 
army  of  300  Spaniards  and  100  Indians  he  overran  the 
territory  and  in  1693  established  himself  in  Santa  Fe. 
Three  years  later  there  was  another  Indian  outbreak,  but 
this  was  soon  put  down  by  De  Vargas.  From  the  time 
of  De  Vargas  until  the  year  1800  twenty-four  Spanish 
governors  ruled  in  the  old  Governor's  Palace  in  Santa  Fe. 

Up  until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  there 
had  been  no  approach  of  Americans  from  the  East  into 
New  Mexico.  In  1 804  an  American  peddler  entered  New 
Mexico,  sold  his  wares  at  fabulous  prices,  and  decided 
that  he  would  remain  in  the  country  without  bothering 
to  render  an  account  to  his  employer  back  east.  The 
following  year  (1805)  a  hunter,  trapper,  and  trader, 
named  James  Purseley  became  lost  in  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains and  wandered  down  into  New  Mexico.  The  fol- 
lowing year  Lieutenant  Zebulon  Montgomery  Pike  en- 
tered the  San  Luis  Valley  by  mistake  and  built  a  fort. 


54    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

He  was  arrested  and  taken  to  Santa  Fe  and  later  to 
Mexico. 

In  1812  merchants  from  St.  Louis  blazed  the  now 
famous  Santa  Fe  Trail,  although  this  was  not  perma- 
nently opened  until  1822.  From  this  time  trade  rapidly 
increased  and  caravans  of  one  sort  or  another  were  con- 
tinually going  and  coming.  By  the  year  1843  these 
caravans  were  very  large,  and  single  caravans  which  in- 
cluded 350  men  and  230  wagons  and  carried  nearly  half  a 
million  dollars  worth  of  goods  at  first  cost  were  known. 

In  the  year  1826  Kit  Carson  accompanied  a  party  of 
hunters  to  Santa  Fe  and  from  that  time  until  the  time  of 
his  death  in  1868,  New  Mexico  was  the  center  of  many 
of  his  most  interesting  exploits. 

From  1821  on,  New  Mexico  was  no  longer  under 
Spanish  control.  At  that  time  she  became  a  province  of 
Mexico  practically  without  bloodshed  or  disorder  of  any 
sort,  and  thus  she  remained  until  1846  when  General 
S.  W.  Kearney,  marching  westward  from  Fort  Leaven- 
worth,  Kansas,  occupied  Santa  Fe,  and  on  August  22nd 
raised  the  American  flag  over  the  plaza  and  declared  New 
Mexico  a  part  of  the  United  States.  Not  a  shot  was 
fired  or  a  drop  of  blood  spilled.  By  the  terms  of  the 
Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  completed  with  Mexico 
February  2,  1848,  at  the  close  of  the  Mexican  War  this 
territory  was  ceded  to  the  United  States.  A  territorial 
government  was  soon  set  up,  and  in  1863  Arizona,  which 
had  originally  formed  a  part  of  New  Mexico,  was  set  off 
as  a  separate  Territory.  In  1912  President  Taft  issued 
the  formal  declaration  of  statehood  and  New  Mexico 
became  a  regularly  recognized  state  of  the  United  States 
of  America.  During  the  sixty  years  from  1851  to  1911 


SPANISH- AMERICANS  IN  NEW  MEXICO    55 

twenty-four  different  territorial  governors  served  New 
Mexico. 

The  present  state  of  New  Mexico  is  almost  square, 
extending  approximately  350  miles  east  and  west  and  the 
same  distance  north  and  south.  Its  area  is  122,634 
square  miles,  or  98  times  the  size  of  Rhode  Island  and 
larger  than  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.  The  altitude  of  the  state  varies  from  13,360 
feet  to  2,876  feet,  with  an  average  altitude  of  more  than 
one  mile.  There  is  an  average  of  214  clear  days  and  99 
partly  cloudy  days  each  year.  The  resulting  climate  is 
mild,  dry,  and  invigorating,  although  it  varies  greatly 
with  the  altitude.  Many  of  the  residents  of  the  state  have 
come  as  health-seekers  attracted  by  the  climate.  The  Rio 
Grande  River  flows  for  five  hundred  miles  across  the 
state  from  north  to  south. 

In  1910  New  Mexico  ranked  forty- fourth  in  popula- 
tion among  the  states.  Her  population  in  1850  was 
61,547;  by  1860  it  had  increased  to  93,516;  in  1870  it 
was  91,874;  in  1880,  119,565;  in  1890,  160,282;  in  1900, 
195,310;  in  1910,  327,301;  and  in  1914  the  estimated 
population  for  the  state  was  383,551.  In  1910  the  density 
of  population  was  2.7  persons  per  square  mile,  as  com- 
pared with  31  for  the  entire  area  of  the  United  States. 
Of  the  total  population  in  1910,  280,730  were  classed  as 
rural  and  46,571  as  urban.  Albuquerque  was  the  only 
place  in  the  state  of  8,000  or  over;  its  population  was 
10,020.  The  native  white  population  was  281,940;  the 
foreign-born  white  was  22,654.  Of  this  latter  group 
more  than  one-half  came  from  Mexico,  and  of  the  native 
white  group  possibly  sixty  per  cent  were  of  Spanish  and 
Mexican  stock.  There  were  20,573  Indians  in  the  state, 
and  these  were  almost  all  Pueblo  Indians.  There  were 


56    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

only  1,594  negroes  in  the  state.  So  far  as  population  is 
concerned  the  entire  state  was  and  is  predominantly  of 
Mexican  or  Spanish  ancestry. 

For  many  years  the  development  of  New  Mexico  was 
held  back  by  lack  of  railroads.  In  1878,  however,  the 
Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe  Railroad  entered  the 
state,  and  by  February  15,  1880,  it  had  been  completed 
through  to  Santa  Fe.  There  was  considerable  excitement 
over  the  building  of  part  of  this  road,  as  the  last  360 
miles  were  built  in  260  days  in  order  to  save  the  charter 
of  the  road.  Soon  after  the  road  was  completed  through 
to  El  Paso.  Later  came  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande,  the 
Southern  Pacific  and  other  roads.  There  are  now  nearly 
four  thousand  miles  of  main  track  in  the  state.  Trans- 
portation facilities  are,  therefore,  relatively  good. 

Another  circumstance  which  delayed  the  development 
of  New  Mexico  was  the  difficulty  of  getting  a  clear  title 
to  land.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  early  Spanish  sov- 
ereigns to  issue  grants  of  territory  to  explorers  and 
settlers.  These  grants  often  covered  large  areas.  Later 
the  land  was  parceled  out  on  certain  terms  to  loyal  fol- 
lowers. When  the  Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was 
made  with  Mexico  in  1848  it  contained  a  provision  for- 
ever guaranteeing  the  validity  of  these  original  grants. 
Naturally  this  left  matters  in  a  very  complex  state  and 
for  a  long  time  it  was  very  difficult  to  get  a  clear  title  to 
any  land  which  had  been  included  in  these  early  grants. 
For  years  Congress  delayed  action  in  this  matter,  but  at 
last  the  Court  of  Private  Claims  was  established  and  most 
of  the  questions  of  titles  have  now  been  settled  and  an 
individual  can  purchase  land  in  New  Mexico  with  as 
much  legal  security  to  the  title  as  in  other  states. 

So  far  as  agriculture  is  concerned  over  eleven  million 


SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN  NEW  MEXICO    57 

acres  of  land  in  New  Mexico  were  laid  out  in  farms  in 
1910,  and  the  area  has  been  steadily  increasing  since  that 
time.  An  overwhelming  proportion  of  this  land  is  farmed 
by  Spanish-speaking  farmers.  About  one-third  of  these 
farms  were  irrigated  farms.  The  climate  of  New  Mexico 
differs  so  much  in  different  parts  and  at  different  altitudes 
that  in  many  places  good  crops  can  be  raised  without 
irrigation.  The  amount  of  irrigated  land  is,  however, 
steadily  increasing.  On  these  farms  millions  of  dollars 
worth  of  farm  products  are  grown  every  year.  These 
products  include  corn,  wheat,  oats,  barley,  potatoes,  hay, 
beans,  yams,  apples,  peaches,  pears,  plums,  prunes,  sugar 
cane,  berries  of  many  sorts,  and  other  small  fruits  and 
vegetables.  The  mild  climate  and  vast  grassy  plains  of 
New  Mexico  make  unusually  favorable  conditions  for  the 
raising  of  stock,  and  millions  of  sheep  and  cattle  roam 
over  her  hills  and  valleys  and  supply  yearly  millions  of 
pounds  of  wool  and  other  animal  products  for  our  con- 
sumption. There  is  some  lumbering  in  the  state  and  a 
great  deal  of  mining,  particularly  of  coal  and  copper  and 
of  many  other  metals  on  a  larger  or  smaller  scale. 

As  a  land  of  romantic  and  archaeological  interest,  how- 
ever, New  Mexico  stands  perhaps  unexcelled.  Here 
Indian  pueblos  of  traditional  age  and  Mexican  plazas  of 
charming  simplicity  blend  into  the  already  beautiful  land- 
scape in  a  way  to  charm  the  eye  of  the  artist.  The  thou- 
sands of  little  adobe  houses  scattered  over  hillside  and 
valley,  sometimes  many  miles  from  the  beaten  path  of 
civilization,  seem  to  form  as  integral  a  part  of  the  ever- 
pleasing  vista  as  do  the  bushes  by  the  way,  the  projecting 
rocks,  or  the  tumbling  streams.  Everything  seems  to 
"belong."  One  has  only  to  visit  New  Mexico  to  feel 
that  he  is  in  an  ancient  land,  a  land  of  mystery,  and  a 


58    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

land  with  an  untold  past  which  must  be  full  of  interest. 
When  the  Spaniards  arrived  they  found  a  very  old  civil- 
ization, how  old  no  one  knows.  Some  say  the  past  of 
New  Mexico  goes  back  at  least  to  600  A.  D.  Very  old 
indeed  it  is,  and  the  very  isolation  of  the  life  has  tended 
to  preserve  its  oldness.  Some  have  called  the  state  the 
"Holy  Land"  of  America,  for  here  as  nowhere  else  in 
America  can  be  seen  the  customs  of  the  orient.  Here 
the  sickle  is  still  in  use;  and  here  the  ox  and  the  goat 
may  still  be  seen  treading  out  the  grain.  Here  the 
shepherd  still  lives  with  his  sheep;  and  here  the  rugged 
mountain-side  reminds  the  visitor  of  the  rocky  hills  of 
Palestine.  Here  bricks  are  still  made  of  straw;  corn  is 
ground  between  two  stones;  and  beds  are  rolled  up  and 
taken  along  when  on  a  journey.  There  is  much  in  the 
life  to  suggest  to  the  visitor  that  he  has  slipped  back  a 
few  centuries  into  a  life  of  which  we  have  read,  but  which 
few  of  us  have  witnessed.  The  artist,  the  archaeologist, 
the  anthropologist,  the  ethnologist,  the  sociologist,  and  the 
student  of  folklore  all  find  here  in  New  Mexico  a  field 
which  satisfies  their  longings,  for  there  are  ever  new 
things  to  learn. 

We  do  not  have  to  go  back  into  the  prehistoric  period, 
however,  to  find  much  that  is  of  unusual  interest.  The 
old  Governor's  Palace  in  Santa  Fe,  of  which  we  know 
the  history,  is  perhaps  as  interesting  and  as  full  of 
romance  as  any  of  the  prehistoric  dwellings  with  which 
the  state  abounds.  This  Palace,  built  in  1605  of  the  ever- 
available  adobe,  still  stands  after  more  than  three  cen- 
turies of  constant  use.  Here  the  long  line  of  Spanish, 
Pueblo,  Mexican,  and  American  Territorial  Governors 
has  passed  in  continuous  procession.  This  building, 
which  antedates  the  settlement  of  Jamestown,  New 


SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN  NEW  MEXICO    '59 

Amsterdam,  and  Plymouth,  has  been  through  sieges  and 
triumphs.  It  has  housed  executions  and  scenes  of  public 
thanksgiving.  Here  has  floated  the  flag  of  Spain,  the 
flag  of  Mexico,  and  the  flag  of  the  United  States.  Here 
murder  has  been  committed,  and  here  Lew  Wallace  as 
Governor  of  the  Territory  wrote  the  last  part  of  Ben  Hur, 
a  tale  of  the  Christ.  Here  in  1846  General  Kearney 
formally  took  possession  of  New  Mexico  for  the  United 
States,  and  here  he  slept  on  the  dirt  floor  after  his  long 
and  weary  march  across  the  prairies.  Or  if  one  is  not 
content  he  may  walk  across  the  ancient  plaza  and  visit 
the  famous  old  San  Miguel  Church,  claimed  to  be  the 
oldest  church  in  the  United  States  and  to  date  back  more 
than  three  hundred  years.  It  is  made  of  adobe  and  its 
walls  are  very  thick.  It  is  said  that  the  bodies  of  many 
very  important  personages  have  been  buried  in  this 
church,  including  the  famous  Spanish  conqueror,  De 
(Vargas.  Here  can  be  seen  and  heard  the  famous  bell, 
said  to  be  the  oldest  bell  in  the  United  States,  and  just 
across  the  way  stands  the  old  adobe  house  which  is 
claimed  with  equal  enthusiasm  to  be  the  oldest  dwelling 
in  the  United  States.  In  Santa  Fe  one  does  indeed  stand 
in  the  presence  of  the  past,  but  a  past  which  antedates 
the  coming  of  the  Spaniard  nearly  four  hundred  years 
ago  by  hundreds  and  possibly  by  thousands  of  years. 

All  this  provides  but  the  setting  for  the  life  of  the 
present,  but  it  is  a  setting  which  must  be  understood  if 
the  New  Mexico  of  to-day  is  to  be  understood  and  if  her 
problems  are  to  be  sympathetically  and  intelligently  ap- 
proached. New  Mexico  bears  to-day  the  imprint  of  both 
the  Spanish  and  the  Mexican  periods  through  which  she 
has  lived.  The  Spanish  era  left  its  language,  its  religion, 
its  methods  of  agriculture,  and  many  of  its  social  customs 


60    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

indelibly  stamped  upon  the  region.  The  Mexican  period, 
which  was  shorter  and  which  occupied  a  time  when  Mex- 
ico herself  was  in  turmoil  and  only  just  finding  herself  as  a 
nation,  possibly  had  a  larger  effect  indirectly  than  directly 
upon  the  life  of  the  region.  Throughout  all  the  South- 
west there  were  many  of  Spanish  and  Mexican  descent 
when  the  territory  became  a  part  of  the  United  States 
three-quarters  of  a  century  ago.  For  the  most  part  these 
settlers  were  of  the  independent,  rugged,  frontier  type 
which  had  never  been  bothered  with  any  undue  enthusiasm 
for  a  central  government  of  any  sort.  Their  very  isolation 
made  their  interests  local.  The  fact,  however,  that  the 
language  of  these  people  was  Spanish  as  was  the  lan- 
guage of  Mexico  gave  them  a  feeling  of  kinship  with 
Mexico.  Of  course,  too,  the  kinship  was  more  than  a 
mere  feeling.  On  the  other  hand  the  stream  of  immi- 
grants from  Mexico  has  never  ceased  for  more  than  three 
hundred  years  and  the  group  which  we  adopted  in  1848 
has  been  steadily  augmented  both  from  within  and  from 
without.  The  fact  that  General  Kearney  was  able  to  take 
over  New  Mexico  without  the  shedding  of  blood,  and  the 
further  fact  that  during  the  Civil  War,  which  followed 
so  soon  after  New  Mexico  had  become  a  part  of  the 
United  States,  New  Mexico  stood  loyal  to  the  Union, 
are  both  indications  that  there  never  has  been  among  our 
Spanish-speaking  people  of  the  Southwest  any  very  pro- 
nounced pro-Mexico  feeling.  So  far  as  they  have  been 
stirred  by  feelings  of  patriotism  those  feelings  have  been 
directed  toward  the  United  States.  There  has  probably 
never  been  any  real  danger  in  the  past  that  our  Southwest 
would  quickly  turn  against  the  United  States  in  case  of 
trouble  with  Mexico.  The  descendants  of  those  who 
occupied  this  territory  when  we  received  it  are  of  course 


SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN  NEW  MEXICO    61 

American  citizens,  "Spanish-Americans"  we  have  come  to 
call  them.  They  are  to  be  found  throughout  all  of  the 
Southwest,  but  they  stand  out  most  conspicuously  in  New 
Mexico.  Both  isolation  and  numbers  have  been  factors 
in  creating  this  situation. 

At  Santa  Fe,  both  the  ancient  and  the  modern  capital 
of  New  Mexico,  there  are  to  be  seen  some  of  the 
sights  which  are  to  be  witnessed  in  the  United  ,c 
In  politics  the  Spanish-speaking  element  has  alw 
and  still  is  the  dominant  factor  in  the  state. 
ernor,  a  large  number  of  the  legislators,  a*" 
of  all  the  other  office  holders  in  the 
group.     When  the  legislature  of  th^ 
fore,  to  transact  business  it  becc' 
tance  that  the  speeches  which  * 
which  are  passed  shall  be  ir> 
stand.    When  a  memb^ 
must  be  turned  by  t 
those  members  oc 
English  rrv 
another 


r 


62    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

of  the  difficult  task  which  the  public  school  confronts  in 

the  teaching  of  English  in  communities  where  Spanish  is 

the  only  language  heard  in  the  homes,  on  the  streets,  or 

on  the  playground.     In  the  larger  centers  there  is  more 

incentive  to  master  the  English  language,  but  in  New 

Mexico  there  have  been  few  "larger"  centers.     For  the 

-t  part  the  people  have  lived  tucked  away  in  the  rnoun^ 

~r  hidden  in  the  valleys  sometimes  fifty  miles  from 

•oads,  sometimes  more.     The  roads  are  rough, 

wing  the  beds  of  mountain  streams,  so  that 

'  of  high  water  they  are  altogether  cut  off 

world  and  even  during  the  more  favor- 

"".Ities  of  travel  are  so  numerous  that 

-°nt  to  be  looked  forward  to  for 

nly  in  the  face  of  obstacles. 

^f  New  Mexico  visited  by 

"•o  is  more  or  less  typical 

railroad,  back  in 

're    Spanish- 

'on  school 

~y  home 

'duals 

'sh 


SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN  NEW  MEXICO    63 

ing  of  a  language  which  one  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
case  can  rarely  or  never  hear  spoken.  In  this  particular 
town  nearly  everybody  was  related  to  nearly  everybody 
else.  The  town  has  had  an  interesting  history.  More 
than  fifty  years  ago  a  Mexican  and  his  wife  drove  back 
into  the  wilderness  and  settled.  There  they  raised  a 
family.  For  the  first  few  years  they  lived  in  a  cave  in 
the  side  of  the  mountain.  Later  they  built  an  adobe 
house.  As  the  children  grew  up  they  sought  wives  and 
husbands.  A  few  people  moved  into  the  region  and  one 
after  another  little  adobe  houses  and  barns  came  into 
existence  until  the  town  has  grown  to  its  present  size. 
As  soon  as  spring  appears  the  residents  begin  to  scatter 
out  to  their  little  ranches  distributed  throughout  the 
region.  They  raise  their  corn,  and  their  beans,  their  oats, 
their  wheat,  their  potatoes  and  various  other  crops.  Their 
sheep,  their  goats,  and  their  cattle  forage  on  the  moun- 
tainside or  in  the  valley.  In  the  fall  the  population  once 
more  returns  to  the  town  with  the  fruitage  of  the 
summer's  labors. 

In  some  of  these  higher  altitudes  in  New  Mexico  the 
climate  is  surprisingly  severe  and  sometimes  the  seasons 
are  unfavorable.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  these 
people  have  only  succeeded  in  securing  the  barest  living. 
We  should  pause,  however,  before  we  jump  to  the  con- 
clusion that  this  indicates  some  native  lack  on  the  part  of 
the  people  themselves.  I  have  spent  months  at  a  time 
among  the  Highlanders  of  our  Appalachian  mountains 
and  for  industry,  frugality,  cleanliness,  and  general  pro- 
gressiveness  these  highlanders  of  the  Southwest  of  Span- 
ish and  Mexican  ancestry  would  seem  to  be  on  a  par  with 
those  of  the  East  who  are  of  the  best  Scottish  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  descent.  Similar  forces  of  environment  have  pro- 


64    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

duced  a  similar  result  among  peoples  sometimes  supposed 
to  be  very  different.  In  each  case  we  have  a  poor,  but 
sturdy,  independent,  and  self-reliant  people.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  the  Mexican  has  never  yet  had  a  fair  chance 
to  show  what  he  could  make  of  himself.  He  has 
been  held  in  subjection  by  autocratic  political  power  and 
by  a  feudalistic  social  system  which  was  bound  to  be 
dwarfing.  Even  in  the  early  days  of  New  Mexico  a  well 
developed  feudalism  prevailed.  Sheep-growing  was  the 
great  industry  and  we  are  told  that  at  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century  one  single  holding  amounted  to 
2,000,000  sheep.  The  care  of  these  required  2,700  per- 
sons always  in  the  field,  besides  the  thousands  of  others 
who  were  directly  dependent  upon  them.  These  workers 
received  little  pay  and  it  was  very  easy  to  get  them  into 
debt  to  the  overlord,  who  thus  held  his  workers  in 
practical  slavery. 

For  a  time  even  after  New  Mexico  became  a  territory 
of  the  United  States  practical  peonage  was  authorized  by 
law  under  an  enactment  entitled  a  "Law  Regulating  Con- 
tracts Between  Master  and  Servant."  This  provided  that 
a  servant  might  leave  his  master's  employ  upon  paying  all 
that  he  owed  to  the  master.  This  provision  gave  the 
master  practically  the  continuous  service  of  the  servant. 
Since  New  Mexico  became  a  part  of  the  United  States  the 
chief  obstacles  to  progress,  however,  have  been  ignorance, 
isolation,  the  barrenness  of  much  of  the  country,  and,  for 
some  time,  the  difficulty  of  getting  a  clear  title  to  real 
estate.  Gradually  these  untoward  conditions  are  being 
removed,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  these 
Spanish-Americans  will  move  out  into  more  vital  rela- 
tionships to  our  national  life  as  the  years  pass.  The 
talk  about  the  Mexican  and  the  Spanish-American  as 


SPANISH-AMERICANS  IN  NEW  MEXICO    65 

"manana"  men  is  somewhat  unfair,  at  least  until  we 
have  had  a  chance  to  see  what  they  can  do  with  proper 
incentives  and  with  adequate  nourishment  for  their  bodies. 
Up  to  date  there  is  little  to  indicate  that  they  have  behaved 
particularly  different  from  what  other  races  would  have 
behaved  under  similar  circumstances. 

Nor  should  we  assume  that  the  Spanish-American  is 
necessarily  disloyal  or  unpatriotic  merely  because  he  does 
not  speak  the  English  language.  The  reason  that  he  does 
not  know  English  is  that  he  has  never  been  taught  it,  and 
in  his  limited  sphere  he  has  not  felt  particularly  embar- 
rassed by  his  ignorance.  Of  course  we  cannot  permit 
him  to  remain  permanently  in  this  unfortunate  condition, 
but  it  is  a  condition  which  cannot  be  altered  overnight. 
Until  it  is  altered  the  responsibility  rests  perhaps  as  much 
upon  our  shoulders  as  upon  his.  We  have  a  large  task, 
but  there  are  few  discouraging  and  many  encouraging 
aspects  of  it.  The  present  is  a  time  for  patience  and  a 
time  for  rendering  every  possible  assistance  to  New  Mex- 
ico within  our  power,  as  she  grapples  with  a  situation 
which  is  of  national  significance  but  the  details  of  which 
must  be  worked  out  locally. 

Governor  O.  A.  Larrazola,  the  recent  state  executive, 
has  been  sharply  criticized  for  his  zeal  for  the  teaching 
of  Spanish  in  the  lower  grades  of  the  public  schools  of 
the  state.  He  is  doubtless  wrong  in  his  judgment  as  to 
methods  of  procedure,  but  there  appears  to  be  nothing 
sinister  in  connection  with  his  patriotic  intentions  and 
attitudes  so  far  as  the  United  States  is  concerned.  He 
has  zealously  preached  an  orthodox  Americanism,  has 
taught  respect  for  and  urged  allegiance  to  the  American 
flag,  and  he  has  extolled  the  ideals  of  Christianity  and 
the  virtues  of  the  Christian  home. 


66    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

For  three-quarters  of  a  century  New  Mexico  has  been 
a  part  of  the  United  States.  During  that  time  she  has 
made  remarkable  strides  along  every  line.  She  got  a  late 
start,  and  physical  conditions  and  differences  of  race  have 
proved  to  be  large,  but  not  unsurmountable,  difficulties. 
We  are  already  proud  of  New  Mexico  and  her  Spanish- 
American  population.  They  gave  a  good  account  of 
themselves  both  during  the  Civil  War  and  during  the  late 
War,  and  they  have  given  a  good  account  of  themselves 
in  times  of  peace.  Some  day  when  educational  facilities 
shall  have  been  better  developed  and  shall  have  had  an 
opportunity  to  work  their  inevitable  results  we  shall  find 
it  less  natural  to  speak  of  them  as  "Spanish-Americans," 
for  they  will  have  lost  their  identity  and  have  become 
merged  in  the  great  American  populace  which  is  made  up 
of  so  many  different  strains  and  different  mixtures  and 
which  we  all  fondly  believe  possesses  the  abilities  and  the 
virtues  of  them  all 


CHAPTER  IV 

RELIGION 

IF  we  are  to  understand  the  present  religious  situation 
among  the  Mexicans  and  the  Spanish-Americans  in  the 
United  States,  we  must  recall  a  little  of  the  historical 
background  for  it.  The  natives  of  Mexico  were  zealously 
religious  even  before  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards,  and 
the  religious  authority  was  very  closely  identified  with 
the  political  authority.  This  was  particularly  true  under 
the  Montezumas,  the  last  of  the  Aztec  rulers,  and  re- 
ligious practices  had  become  rather  highly  developed. 
Cortes  and  the  other  early  Spanish  explorers  were  accom- 
panied by  Catholic  friars,  and  one  of  the  avowed  pur- 
poses of  all  the  early  explorations  was  the  extension  of 
the  Christian  faith  among  the  heathen. 

Thus  when  Panfilo  de  Narvaez  petitioned  in  1527  for 
a  grant  which  was  to  include  all  of  our  southern  gulf 
states,  the  northern  part  of  Mexico,  and  New  Mexico, 
he  wrote:  "Sacred  Cassarean  Catholic  Majesty:  Inas- 
much as  I,  Panfilo  de  Narvaez,  have  ever  had  and  still 
have  the  intention  of  serving  God  and  Your  Majesty, 
I  desire  to  go  in  person  with  my  means  to  a  certain  coun- 
try on  the  main  of  the  Ocean  Sea.  I  propose  chiefly  to 
traffic  with  the  natives  of  the  coast,  and  to  take  thither 
religious  men  and  ecclesiastics  approved  by  your  Royal 
Council  of  the  Indies,  that  they  may  make  known  and 

67 


68    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

plant  the  Christian  Faith.  I  shall  observe  fully  what  your 
Council  require  and  ordain  to  the  ends  of  serving  God 
and  Your  Highness,  and  for  the  good  of  your  subjects." 
This  particular  expedition  met  with  many  misfortunes, 
but  the  statement  is  typical  of  the  time  and  of  the  entire 
period  of  Spanish  domination. 

The  early  Spanish  expeditions  to  "New  Spain"  were 
all  conceived  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  extending  the 
ecclesiastical  authority  of  the  Catholic  Church  quite  as 
much  as  to  extend  the  political  domination  of  Spain.  The 
story  of  the  spread  of  nominal  Christianity  became  prac- 
tically identical  with  that  of  Spanish  conquest.  The 
spread  of  missions  in  those  days  did  not  wait  upon  the 
slow  processes  of  enlightenment,  education,  or  persuasion. 
The  rule  of  the  Church  was  imposed  as  ruthlessly  as  the 
rule  of  the  state.  Thus  De  Vargas  had  no  more  than 
established  himself  in  Santa  Fe,  after  he  had  subdued 
the  natives  who  had  revolted  some  years  before,  than  he 
sent  back  word  to  his  Viceroy  that  he  had  "conquered 
for  the  human  and  Divine  Majesties"  all  the  pueblos  for 
thirty-six  leagues  and  had  baptized  nearly  1,000  children 
"born  in  rebellion."  Thus  in  a  sort  of  wholesale  fashion 
Christianity  was  imposed  upon  the  natives  throughout 
New  Spain.  The  story  did  not  vary  particularly  in  the 
different  parts  of  the  territory.  During  the  entire  period 
of  Spanish  domination  and  of  Mexican  independence  the 
Church  and  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  have  been  per- 
haps the  dominating  influence  in  determining  the  political 
fortunes  of  Mexico,  for,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
ecclesiastics  stood,  with  few  exceptions,  strongly  with 
Spain  against  Mexican  independence,  the  power  of  the 
clergy  was  dominant  in  the  new  republic.  One  of  the 
early  acts  of  the  new  government  was  the  passage  (Jan- 


RELIGION  69 

uary  4,   1823)   of  a  "National  Colonization  Law,"  of 
which  the  following  paragraph  is  the  first  article : 

"Article  I.  The  government  of  the  Mexican  nation 
will  protect  the  liberty,  property,  and  civil  rights  of  all 
foreigners  who  profess  the  Roman  Catholic  apostolic 
religion,  the  established  religion  of  the  empire." 

Another  article  of  the  same  law  reads  as  follows : 

"Article  XVI.  The  government  shall  take  care,  in 
accord  with  the  respective  ecclesiastical  authority,  that 
these  new  towns  are  provided  with  a  sufficient  number  of 
spiritual  pastors,  and,  in  like  manner,  it  will  propose  to 
Congress  a  plan  for  their  decent  support." 

It  is  needless  to  multiply  illustrations  of  the  close  asso- 
ciation of  the  ecclesiastical  with  the  political  authority,  or 
to  dwell  upon  the  vast  wealth  collected  by  the  Church. 
By  1850,  however,  it  was  estimated  that  the  Church 
owned  one-third  of  all  the  real  and  personal  property  of 
the  Mexican  Republic.  The  power  of  the  Church  became 
so  vast  and  the  conditions  which  it  imposed  became  so 
intolerable,  that  an  overturn  of  authority  became  next  to 
inevitable.  This  came  under  Benito  Pablo  Juarez,  an 
Indian  by  birth  but  one  of  the  great  leaders  of  Mexico. 
Under  his  influence  the  constitution  of  1857  was  made  to 
provide  for  freedom  of  religious  opinions,  and  two  years 
later  the  complete  separation  of  church  and  state  and  the 
confiscation  of  much  of  the  Church  property  was  brought 
about.  The  influence  of  the  church  in  politics  did  not 
stop  with  the  formal  separation  of  church  and  state.  The 
common  people  had  become  so  dominantly  Catholic  that 
the  influence  of  the  Church  upon  all  public  affairs  was 
still  bound  to  be  very  large.  Nor  did  the  exploitations  of 
the  people  by  the  Church  cease. 


70    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

As  late  as  1851  we  are  told  by  the  author  of  "El 
Gringo"  that  in  New  Mexico  the  charge  for  spiritual 
services  in  connection  with  burials  was  so  large  that 
parents  were  known  to  abandon  their  children  because 
they  could  not  afford  to  pay  for  the  burial  charges  of  the 
church.  He  tells  of  one  bill  regularly  made  out  and 
submitted  of  which  he  had  personal  knowledge  which 
amounted  to  $1,600.  This  included  a  charge  of  approxi- 
mately $1,000  for  "los  derechos  del  obispo"  (the  rights 
of  the  bishop),  and  a  charge  of  fifty  dollars  each  for 
"los  posos,"  which  meant  that  each  time  the  procession 
halted  on  the  way  to  the  burial  a  charge  of  fifty  dollars 
was  made.  He  tells  of  another  bill  of  which  he  had 
knowledge  which  included  charges  for  the  following 
items :  "Tolling  of  the  bells,"  "the  grave,"  "the  grand 
cross,"  "high  mass  vestments,"  "holy  water,"  "candle- 
sticks," "vessel  for  incense,"  "resting  places,"  "the  inter- 
ment," "mass,"  "use  of  the  organ,"  "the  chanters,"  "the 
response  of  the  oratory,"  "the  deacon's  fee,"  and  "addi- 
tional." The  charges  for  these  items  varied  from  one  to 
thirty  dollars  each,  and  a  bill  made  out  in  regular  form  was 
submitted  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  and  paid  by  the 
man  who  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  lose  any  member  of 
his  family  by  death. 

Up  until  1850  in  New  Mexico  and  1867  in  Old  Mexico 
the  Catholic  Church  had  no  competition  from  Protestant 
churches.  Protestant  work  has  developed  slowly.  With- 
in recent  years,  however,  there  has  been  a  steadily  grow- 
ing feeling  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  Catholic  Church 
and  its  methods  in  Mexico,  and  in  large  areas  the  priests 
have,  at  times,  literally  been  driven  out  of  Mexico.  While 
the  revolution  of  1920  which  resulted  in  the  overthrow 
of  Carranza  was  in  progress  I  talked  with  a  prominent 


RELIGION  71 

leader  of  the  revolutionists  concerning  this  religious 
question. 

"What  will  be  the  attitude  of  the  new  government 
toward  religion  ?"  I  inquired. 

"It  will  be  that  of  religious  freedom  and  toleration," 
he  replied;  and  then  he  continued,  "For  one  I  do  not 
believe  that  we  ought  to  drive  out  the  Church.  That 
won't  work.  The  Mexican  people  are  too  religious  for 
that,  but  I  do  believe  that  we  must  have  religious  liberty, 
and  Protestant  missionary  work  will  be  gladly  welcomed 
by  the  new  government,  particularly  the  educational 
work." 

The  new  government  in  Mexico  evidently  intends  to 
give  both  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant  churches  in 
Mexico  every  opportunity  to  carry  on  their  regular  activi- 
ties, but  the  lessons  of  the  past  have  not  been  forgotten, 
and  there  is  a  determination  of  steel  to  see  to  it  that  the 
blighting  hand  of  Catholic  ecclesiasticism  shall  never  again 
dominate  the  government. 

All  of  this  may  seem  to  have  little  to  do  with  the 
religious  situation  among  our  own  Spanish-speaking 
population,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  has  much  to  do  with 
it ;  first,  because  New  Mexico  was  so  long  a  part  of  Old 
Mexico  and,  second,  because  out  of  this  Mexican  en- 
vironment there  have  come  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Mexicans  into  the  United  States  recently,  and,  while  they 
are  mostly  nominal  Catholics,  many  of  them  are  in  a  state 
of  mental  revolt  against  the  only  church  with  which  they 
have  been  associated.  This  makes  them  particularly  re- 
sponsive to  any  sincere,  sympathetic,  and  kindly,  religious 
approach  which  is  made  to  them.  They  are,  therefore, 
more  responsive  to  Protestant  and  other  religious  efforts 
than  are  the  Spanish-American  Catholics  who  have  re- 


72    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

sided  longer  in  the  United  States  and  who  are  not  so 
familiar  in  recent  years  with  the  results  of  unrestrained 
Catholic  domination  which  has  so  long  blighted  the  life 
of  Mexico  and  the  Mexicans.  Some  of  the  charges 
against  the  Catholic  Church  in  connection  with  its  work 
among  the  Mexicans  and  Spanish-Americans  in  the 
United  States  do  not  form  pleasant  reading,  but  until 
they  are  faced  frankly  by  ecclesiastical  authorities  and 
some  solutions  worked  out  there  is  little  hope  of  these 
people  taking  their  full  place  on  an  intellectual  and  moral 
level  with  the  rest  of  our  citizenry.  The  question  is  fully 
as  much  one  of  Americanization  and  of  social  morality 
as  it  is  a  religious  question. 

In  the  early  days  the  natives  were  "converted"  to 
Christianity  at  the  rate  of  thousands  per  day  practically 
at  the  point  of  the  gun.  It  was  inevitable  that  this  ac- 
ceptance of  Christianity  could  be  only  a  formal  matter. 
The  cross  was  substituted  for  or  became  an  affix  to  some 
pagan  ceremony.  Even  to-day  in  our  Southwest  the 
cross  is  an  ever-present  wayside  decoration  in  scores  of 
communities  where  vital  Christianity  is  unknown. 
Heathen  rites  and  Christian  ceremonies  became  merged 
in  something  which  was  partly  Christian  in  nomenclature 
and  pagan  in  spirit  and  reality.  Such  wholesale  extension 
of  formal  Christianity  could  result  in  nothing  else.  Chris- 
tianity became  a  matter  of  form  and  ceremony,  and 
Christianity  as  a  way  of  life  received  little  attention. 

Religion  and  morality  either  became  entirely  divorced 
or  religion  became  a  convenient  device  for  making  im- 
morality safe  and  innocuous.  The  "Bull  of  Composition" 
is  said  to  have  permitted  the  priests  to  relieve  persons 
who  stole  property  from  the  obligation  of  making  restitu- 
tion, provided  that  a  certain  sum,  based  on  the  value  of 


RELIGION  73 

the  stolen  goods,  was  paid  to  the  priest.  It  was  under- 
stood, however,  that  the  same  person  could  not  purchase 
more  than  fifty  of  such  licenses  in  one  year.  As  late  as 
1914  John  Wesley  Butler  writes  of  Mexico,  "Indulgences 
are  still  sold  publicly."  To-day  we  see  the  fruitage  of 
such  a  system,  for  observers  everywhere  testify  to  the 
fact  that  Mexicans  raised  under  such  a  system  may  have 
many  virtues,  but  they  will  persistently  steal  and  lie. 
Thus  a  Mexican  who  is  a  faithful  worker  and  is  a  kindly, 
polite,  and  orderly  citizen  will  lie  amazingly  and  will  take 
property  which  does  not  belong  to  him  when  opportunity 
offers.  On  the  other  hand,  Mexicans  raised  under  a  dif- 
ferent environment  are  as  scrupulously  truthful  and 
honest  as  Americans. 

Closely  associated  with  this  is  the  attitude  of  the  Mex- 
ican toward  marriage  and  the  sex  relationship  in  general. 
Here  again  the  church  by  its  exorbitant  marriage  fees 
has  discouraged  marriage  and  encouraged  promiscuity. 
This,  too,  is  unfortunate.  The  author  of  "El  Gringo" 
tells  us  that  after  New  Mexico  became  a  part  of  the 
United  States  the  very  lowest  marriage  fee  charged  was 
$20,  or  the  equivalent  of  a  peon's  wages  for  four  months. 
From  this  amount  the  charges  ranged  up  to  at  least  $400. 
The  list  of  abuses  might  be  greatly  extended.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  also  that  many  Roman  Catholic  writers 
have  spoken  as  freely  of  religious  conditions  in  Mexico 
as  have  Protestant  writers. 

In  1865  Abbe  Emanuel  Domenech  came  to  Mexico  as 
chaplain  of  the  French  troops.  Later  he  was  asked  by 
the  Vatican  to  make  a  tour  of  the  country  and  report  upon 
"the  moral  and  religious  conditions  of  the  clergy  and 
Church."  The  following  is  quoted  by  John  Wesley  But- 
ler from  Abbe  Domenech's  report:  "Mexican  faith  is  a 


74    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

dead  faith.  The  abuse  of  external  ceremonies,  the  facility 
of  reconciling  God,  the  abuse  of  internal  exercises  of 
piety,  have  killed  the  faith  in  Mexico.  .  .  .  The  idola- 
trous character  of  Mexican  Catholicism  is  a  fact  well 
known  to  all  travelers.  .  .  .  The  mysteries  of  the  Middle 
Ages  are  utterly  outdone  by  the  burlesque  ceremonies  of 
the  Mexicans.  .  .  .  The  Mexican  is  not  a  Catholic.  He 
is  simply  a  Christian  because  he  has  been  baptized.  I 
speak  of  the  masses  and  not  of  the  numerous  exceptions 
to  be  found.  .  .  .  The  clergy  carry  their  love  of  the 
family  to  that  of  paternity.  In  my  travels  in  the  interior 
of  Mexico,  many  pastors  have  refused  me  hospitality  in 
order  to  prevent  my  seeing  their  nieces  and  cousins  and 
their  children."  It  should  be  remembered  that  these  are 
the  words  of  a  Roman  Catholic  who  has  endeavored  to 
understand  the  actual  situation  in  Mexico. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  with  such  a  background  we 
find  throughout  the  Southwest,  but  particularly  in  the 
secluded  parts  of  New  Mexico,  religious  beliefs,  customs, 
and  superstitions  which  have  either  never  existed  in  other 
parts  of  the  country  or  have  been  outgrown  generations 
ago.  Thus  we  read  in  the  "Land  of  Poco  Tiempo"  by 
Charles  F.  Lummis  that  as  late  as  1887  a  local  witch  was 
stoned  to  death  in  New  Mexico  for  the  crime  of  turning 
a  perfectly  respectable  citizen  into  a  woman  for  the  space 
of  three  months.  He  also  speaks  of  a  number  of  people 
who  have  seen  and  held  converse  with  "his  Satanic 
Majesty."  Possibly  the  most  extreme  manifestation  of 
depraved  religious  practices  at  the  present  time  is  to  be 
found  among  the  Penitentes  of  New  Mexico. 

The  origin  of  this  peculiar  Penitente  order  is  somewhat 
in  dispute.  It  has  been  easy  to  jump  at  the  conclusion 
that  they  were  connected  in  some  historical  manner  with 


RELIGION  75 

the  "Flagellantes,"  an  order  which  originated  in  the 
Middle  Ages  (Italy,  1210)  and  later  spread  throughout  a 
large  part  of  Europe.  A  more  careful  study  seems  to 
indicate,  however,  that  the  Penitentes  of  New  Mexico 
(for  they  are  to  be  found  nowhere  else  except  in  the 
northeastern  counties  of  New  Mexico  and  to  a  slight  ex- 
tent in  southern  Colorado)  are  a  continuation  of  the 
Third  Order  of  Saint  Francis.  L.  Bradford  Prince,  in 
his  story  of  the  "Spanish  Mission  Churches  in  New  Mex- 
ico," says  that  this  order  introduced  customs  which  could 
very  easily  be  exaggerated  and  corrupted  into  the  present 
Penitente  customs  and  ceremonies.  Benavides,  the  great 
Franciscan,  in  his  report  to  the  king  in  1630,  quotes  an 
Indian  wizard  who  was  opposed  to  Christianity  as  say- 
ing :  "You  Spaniards  and  Christians  are  crazy  and  desire 
us  to  be  so  also.  You  are  so  crazy  that  you  go  along  the 
streets  lashing  yourselves  like  madmen,  shedding  blood." 
To  this  Benavides  adds,  "He  must  have  seen  some  disci- 
plinary procession  of  Holy  Week  in  some  Christian 
pueblo/' 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  we  have  here  the 
beginning  of  the  Penitente  customs.  The  Third  Order 
of  Saint  Francis  was  composed  of  laymen  and  it  was 
widely  extended  throughout  New  Mexico.  Its  purpose 
was  to  carry  the  principles  of  the  life  of  Saint  Francis 
into  the  life  of  the  laity,  and  for  two  centuries  nearly  all 
of  the  leading  citizens  were  members  of  the  Order.  This 
fact  is  borne  out  by  the  wills  of  the  period  which  are 
said  to  have  usually  contained  the  following  clause,  "I 
direct  that  when  God,  our  Lord,  shall  see  fit  to  call  me 
out  of  this  present  life,  my  body  be  enshrouded  in  the 
habit  of  our  father,  San  Francisco,  of  whose  Third  Order 
I  am  a  brother,  and  that  my  funeral  be  modest."  This 


76    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

continued  throughout  the  Spanish  occupancy  and  until 
the  Mexican  Revolution,  when  the  Franciscans  were 
forced  to  leave  the  field  and  the  supervision  of  the  Third 
Order.  The  Penitentes,  who  seem  to  be  the  lineal  de- 
scendants of  this  Third  Order,  came  to  call  themselves 
"The  Brotherhood  of  the  Blood  of  Christ." 

Some  years  ago  this  order  was  supposed  to  be  dying 
out,  but  it  has  recently  seemed  to  take  on  new  life.  This 
is  said  to  be  due  quite  largely  to  the  encouragement  of 
politicians  who  have  discovered  the  political  possibilities 
of  the  organization.  I  have  not  seen  the  articles  of  in- 
corporation, but  I  am  informed  by  a  Spanish-American 
who  has  long  been  resident  among  the  Penitentes  of  New 
Mexico  that  the  order  has  recently  been  incorporated  by 
the  state  of  New  Mexico  under  the  name,  "Sociedad  de 
Nuestro  Padre  Jesus,  De  Nazareno"  (The  Society  oi 
Our  Father  Jesus,  the  Nazarene),  and  that  many  county 
and  state  officials  in  New  Mexico  owe  their  positions  to 
the  Penitentes.  Mr.  Lummis  writes  that  in  the  year 
1888  but  "three  towns  in  the  Territory  had  Penitente 
processions  and  but  one  enjoyed  a  crucifixion."  If  Mr. 
Lummis  was  correct  there  has  indeed  been  a  considerable 
revival  since  that  time,  for  in  the  year  1920  there  are 
scores  of  towns  where  the  Penitentes  are  the  dominating 
political,  social,  and  religious  factor  in  the  community. 
The  Moradas  or  Penitente  houses  are  usually  made  of 
stone  or  adobe,  often  without  windows  of  any  sort  and 
marked  only  by  a  small  wooden  cross.  Sometimes  these 
buildings  stand  by  the  side  of  the  Catholic  church  and 
sometimes  at  a  distance  from  it.  Sometimes  they  are  out 
in  the  open  and  sometimes  in  out-of-the-way  spots. 

The  meetings  of  the  order  are  secret  and  it  is  not  easy 
to  know  even  who  the  members  in  a  given  community 


RELIGION  77 

are.  During  Holy  Week,  however,  some  of  their  cere- 
monies and  particularly  their  processions  are  in  the  open. 
The  participants  in  these  open  processions  wear  a  black 
mask  over  the  entire  head,  so  that  even  their  neighbors 
do  not  know  who  is  taking  part.  They  wear  a  small  lower 
garment,  but  aside  from  that  and  the  mask  their  bodies 
are  naked.  Their  backs  are  gashed  with  flint  or  some 
other  sharp  instrument,  and  then  they  whip  themselves 
with  whips  made  of  yucca  or  other  harsh  cactus,  as  they 
proceed  on  their  weary  march.  Some  carry  wooden 
crosses  of  great  weight  to  a  distant  hill;  some  wheel 
barrows  of  stone  through  impassable  sand,  and  others 
draw  heavy  loads  with  cords  which  cut  into  their  naked 
bodies.  Many  sorts  of  suffering  are  devised  and  these 
vary  from  community  to  community,  inasmuch  as  there 
is  little  or  no  general  supervision  of  the  order.  There  is 
said  to  be  a  superstitious  regard  for  the  verse,  "Without 
the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission  of  sins." 
There  is  also  on  the  part  of  some  a  desire  to  do  sufficient 
penance  at  one  time  to  last  for  the  entire  year.  It  should 
not  be  inferred,  however,  that  these  people  are  particu- 
larly contrite,  for  some  of  the  worst  characters  appear 
to  enter  most  zealously  into  the  ritual  and  then  to  go  out 
for  another  year  of  unimproved  conduct.  Actual  cruci- 
fixions apparently  no  longer  take  place,  but  exposure  and 
scourging  often  incapacitate  the  participants  for  longer 
or  shorter  periods.  A  reliable  witness  told  the  writer  of 
a  young  man  who  was  recently  laid  up  for  nearly  six 
months,  during  a  portion  of  which  time  he  was  at  the 
point  of  death,  as  a  result  of  participation  in  a  Penitente 
procession.  These  Penitente  processions  have  been  wit- 
nessed by  hundreds  of  people  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
every  possible  secrecy  is  observed,  and  I  have  seen  several 


78    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

relatively  recent  snapshots  of  participants  in  such  pr< 
cessions. 

For  many  years,  particularly  since  the  coming  of 
Bishop  Lamy  in  1851,  the  Catholic  Church  has  dis- 
approved of  the  Penitente  customs.  In  spite  of  that  fact 
all  of  the  Penitentes  are  supposed  to  be  members  in  good 
standing  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  they  usually  succeed 
in  holding  a  portion  of  their  Holy  Week  exercises  in  the 
Catholic  Church. 

Of  a  similar  superstitious  nature  is  the  reverence  paid 
to  the  little  old  Catholic  church  at  Chimayo,  New  Mexico. 
This  object  of  pilgrimage  and  reverence  is  variously 
known  as  "Santuario,  Chimayo"  and  as  the  "San 
Esquipula  Church."  It  is  a  little  adobe  structure  sixty 
by  twenty-four  feet  in  dimensions  and  with  walls  three 
feet  thick.  Picturesquely  situated  on  the  mountainside, 
miles  from  the  railroad,  in  a  most  inaccessible  region,  it  is 
the  object  of  pilgrimage  for  Mexicans  and  Spanish- 
Americans  from  a  wide  area,  including  Arizona  and  parts 
of  Old  Mexico.  The  dirt  enclosed  in  one  room  of  this 
church  is  supposed  to  have  miraculous  properties,  espe- 
cially in  the  healing  of  sickness.  As  many  as  one  hundred 
visitors  have  been  known  to  visit  the  church  in  a  single 
day,  and  on  occasion  pilgrims  may  be  seen  approaching 
the  building  on  their  hands  and  knees.  Hundreds  of 
people  all  over  the  Southwest  attribute  their  present  good 
health  to  the  healing  properties  of  the  dirt  in  this  famous 
church  at  Chimayo.  A  considerable  hole  has  been  dug 
in  the  dirt  floor  by  pilgrims  who  insist  on  carrying  home 
some  of  the  earth.  Old  residents  say  that  this  earth  was 
once  used  to  allay  the  violence  of  storms  and  to  ward  off 
lightnings.  The  method  used  was  to  throw  a  few  grains 
of  the  dirt  into  the  fireplace;  when  the  smoke  reached  the 


RELIGION  79 

top  of  the  chimney  the  fury  of  the  storm  abated  and,  if 
there  were  lightnings,  they  were  turned  aside.  At  pres- 
ent diseases  are  supposed  to  be  healed  by  the  drinking  of 
a  sort  of  tea  made  from  the  sacred  earth  or  by  the  appli- 
cation of  a  portion  of  it  to  the  diseased  part  of  the  body. 

This  Church  was  privately  built  in  1816  by  a  pros- 
perous Mexican.  It  is  still  under  private  control  and  has 
never  been  under  the  control  of  the  priest.  For  many 
years,  however,  the  priest  ministered  in  it.  The  Church 
is  said  to  be  unique  among  all  the  churches  of  the  South- 
west in  its  reputation  for  the  healing  of  disease. 

It  is  needless  to  multiply  illustrations  of  the  way  that 
ignorance,  bigotry,  and  superstition  have  been  woven 
into  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  the  religious  life  of  the 
Mexicans  and  Spanish-Americans  of  our  Southwest.  If 
further  illustration  were  needed  we  might  note  the 
legends  concerning  the  miraculous  painting  of  "Our  Lady 
of  Guadalupe"  still  perpetuated  as  truths,  or  the  super- 
stitious beliefs  which  have  gathered  about  the  famous 
De  Vargas  Day  celebration  in  Santa  Fe  and  other  similar 
superstitious  beliefs  and  practices.  The  fact  is  that  the 
Spanish-Roman-Catholic  domination  of  our  Southwest 
has  left  our  unfortunate  Spanish-speaking  citizens  there 
with  a  heritage  some  of  which  dates  back  almost  un- 
changed to  the  Middle  Ages  and  which  at  its  best  is  un- 
American  and  unfitted  both  in  principle  and  practice  to 
the  needs  of  the  Twentieth  Century  in  which  we  live. 
For  not  the  least  of  the  errors  which  the  Church  has 
committed  has  been  the  refusal  to  raise  up  a  native  leader- 
ship, so  that  after  400  years  we  have  the  Church  dom- 
inated by  priests  from  France,  Italy,  Belgium,  Spain  and 
other  European  countries,  priests  who  sometimes  know 
little  or  nothing  of  the  English  language  and  who  are 


80    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

ignorant  of  or  out  of  sympathy  with  American  ideals 
and  institutions. 

Unsatisfactory  as  has  been  the  ministry  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  in  this  region,  even  this  unsatisfactory 
ministry  has  failed  to  reach  large  numbers  of  the  people, 
and  the  story  has  in  many  places  been  chiefly  a  story  of 
neglect.  The  religious  ministry  in  many  communities 
consists  of  an  infrequent  visit  from  an  itinerant  priest. 
The  poverty  of  the  people  has  made  the  monetary  returns 
small  and  the  service  has  suffered  as  a  result. 

From  a  religious  standpoint  possibly  nothing  would  be 
better  for  our  Spanish-speaking  Americans  than  for  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  to  frankly  acknowledge  her 
shortcomings  in  the  past  and  to  embark  upon  an  educa- 
tional campaign  designed  to  substitute  a  religion  of  en- 
lightenment for  a  religion  or!  superstition;  a  religion  of 
righteousness  for  one  of  formality;  a  religion  of  service 
for  one  of  moral  and  financial  exploitation;  a  religion  of 
Americanism  for  a  religion  of  un- Americanism ;  and  a 
native  trained  leadership  for  a  European  trained  leader- 
ship. The  Roman  Catholic  Church  holds  the  key  to 
unlock  the  new  day  in  our  Southwest,  so  far  at  least  as 
our  Mexicans  and  Spanish- Americans  are  concerned,  if 
she  will  but  use  it.  If  she  refuses  some  one  else  must  do 
the  job. 

It  should  not  be  inferred,  of  course,  that  the  Protestant 
church  is  to  have  no  place  in  ushering  in  the  new  day. 
She  already  has  a  large  part  in  the  task,  and  although 
she  has  sometimes  moved  haltingly  she  has  made  a  far 
larger  contribution  to  the  religious  and  moral  life  of  the 
people  among  whom  she  has  been  working  than  any 
results  in  terms  of  membership  constituency  might  seem 
to  indicate.  She  began  her  work  about  1850  and  she 


RELIGION  81 

was,  therefore,  some  325  years  behind  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  in  the  same  field.  In  the  early  days  there 
was  much  persecution  of  Protestant  workers;  they  were 
threatened,  stoned,  and,  in  at  least  one  or  two  cases, 
killed,  At  present  Protestant  work  for  Mexicans  and 
Spanish- Americans  is  being  carried  on  in  some  300  dif- 
ferent communities  in  our  border  states.  There  is  a 
reported  membership  of  more  than  10,000  and  a  Prot- 
estant constituency  of  several  times  that  number.  In  the 
early  days  the  work  consisted  largely  of  preaching  and 
Sunday-school  activities.  Very  soon  an  educational  work 
was  developed  and  more  recently  an  elaborate  social  pro- 
gram has  been  undertaken.  This  is  particularly  true 
since  the  large  influx  of  Mexicans  into  the  United  States 
has  brought  congestion  and  multiplied  social  problems 
into  many  communities  in  the  Southwest.  This  social 
service  program  takes  on  many  forms.  It  includes  the 
maintaining  of  employment  agencies;  the  furnishing  of 
work  and  the  teaching  of  trades  through  "Goodwill  In- 
dustries" ;  the  establishment  of  medical  and  dental  clinics ; 
home  visitation ;  the  teaching  of  English ;  the  teaching  of 
Spanish;  instruction  in  music,  elocution,  practical  nurs- 
ing, health,  hygiene,  sanitation,  manual  training  of  many 
sorts,  and  other  branches.  Mothers  are  taught  sewing, 
cooking,  home-making,  and  the  care  of  children  in 
Mother's  Clubs;  and  Boy  Scout,  Girl  Scout,  and  many 
other  clubs  are  maintained  for  boys  and  girls  and  young 
people.  Mexicans  in  trouble  and  sickness  are  assisted; 
milk  is  distributed  to  undernourished  children  and  to 
invalids ;  reading  and  rest  rooms  and  information  bureaus 
are  maintained;  and  kindergartens  are  conducted.  Day 
schools  are  conducted  among  Spanish-Americans  and  in 
Border  towns,  and  Protestant  boarding-schools  for  Span- 


82    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

ish-speaking  youth  are  to  be  found  in  all  the  Border 
states.  In  many  places  playground  apparatus  is  pro- 
vided, and  community  activities  promoted.  These  include 
community  celebrations,  war-time  garden  projects,  "clean- 
up" weeks,  and  other  similar  projects. 

Much  of  this  work  is  done  purely  as  a  service  to  the 
individual  and  the  community,  and  no  strings  are  at- 
tached to  it.  It  is  pure  Americanization  work  done  in 
the  spirit  of  Christian  service.  Whenever  possible  a  small 
charge  is  made  for  services  rendered,  in  order  that  the 
habit  of  dependence  and  pauperization  may  not  be  en- 
couraged. There  .is  nothing  of  exploitation  and  little  or 
nothing  of  "proselytism"  in  connection  with  this  fine  and 
rapidly  extending  social  ministry.  Its  primary  purpose 
is  to  assist  an  unfortunate  and  often  helpless  people  to 
establish  themselves  upon  an  American  plane  of  living. 
As  a  by-product  this  work  is  doing  much  to  establish 
confidence  on  the  part  of  Mexicans  in  Americans  and  in 
America,  and  new  arrivals  in  America  have  proved  to  be 
remarkably  open  to  approach  and  remarkably  grateful 
when  they  have  once  become  convinced  that  certain 
Americans,  at  least,  stand  ready  to  help  them  during  the 
difficult  period  of  getting  established  in  a  new  land, 
merely  because  they  are  fellow  human  beings  in  need. 

In  this  fine  work  many  independent  agencies  are  assist- 
ing. .Thus  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has  several  Mexican  branches 
where  Mexican  boys  and  young  men  are  receiving  under 
a  wholesome  environment  the  same  sort  of  opportunities 
and  training  as  is  accorded  .to  American  youth.  The  Y. 
W.  C.  A.  used  a  portion  of  its'war  fund  for  Americaniza- 
tion work  among  Spanish-speaking  people  on  the  Border. 
A  number  of  centers  were  opened  from  San  Antonio 
through  to  Los  Angeles.  As  the  original  funds  have 


RELIGION  83 

become  exhausted,  the  work  has  in  some  cases  been 
adopted  locally.  In  these  centers  a  great  variety  of  activ- 
ities has  been  carried  on.  Hundreds  of  Mexican  girls 
and  women  have  been  gathered  in  English  classes,  cooking 
classes,  and  home-making  clubs  of  many  sorts.  The 
teaching  of  history  and  American  civics  has  been  included, 
and  the  work  has  reached  not  only  the  poorer  Mexican 
women  but  also  some  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  aristo- 
cratic among  the  refugees.  In  Pirtleville,  Arizona,  the 
work  has  included  a  fine  ministry  to  the  boys  and  girls 
of  the  community,  the  establishment  of  a  community  read- 
ing room,  the  distribution  of  quantities  of  magazines  and 
other  periodicals,  and  various  other  ministries.  In  El 
Paso  a  room  has  been  set  aside  for  the  use  of  Mexican 
girls  employed  as  shop  girls  and  as  stenographers,  to 
which  they  can  come  during  the  noon  hour  to  prepare 
and  eat  their  mid-day  lunch.  Thus  the  list  of  ministries 
carried  on  by  these  and  other  agencies  might  be  greatly 
extended.  They  are  but  illustrations  of  the  way  in  which 
America  is  extending  the  hand  of  friendship  to  our  newly 
arrived  neighbors  from  Old  Mexico.  They  represent  one 
of  the  most  hopeful  aspects  of  the  entire  Border  situation. 
It  is  needless  to  talk  about  the  "rights"  of  the  Protest- 
ant church  to  work  in  this  field.  In  a  land  of  religious 
freedom  there  will  always  be  opportunity  for  earnest 
Christians  to  proclaim  the  truth  as  they  see  it.  In  this 
field,  however,  there  has  been  the  challenge  of  great  need 
to  which  the  Protestant  church  could  do  no  less  than 
respond.  There  will,  without  doubt,  always  be  a  Protest- 
ant constituency  here,  and  very  likely  it  will  be  a  steadily 
increasing  constituency.  The  responsive  attitude  of  the 
newcomers  from  Mexico  seems  to  promise  this,  particu- 
larly when  the  present  enlarged  program  of  Christian 


84.    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

work  on  the  part  of  the  Protestant  agencies  is  taken  into 
consideration.  On  the  other  hand,  a  Protestant  member- 
ship constituency  of  something  over  ten  thousand  souls 
as  the  result  of  three-quarters  of  a  century  of  effort  does 
not  promise  any  quick  solution  of  the  religious  problem 
in  this  field  by  the  conversion  of  our  Spanish-speaking 
population  to  the  Protestant  faith.  If  the  solution  of 
the  matter  depended  upon  this,  the  situation  would  indeed 
be  discouraging.  Quite  apart  from  numbers  the  Protest- 
ant Church  has  brought  into  the  field  higher  ideals  of 
life  and  conduct,  a  more  wholesome  interpretation  of  God 
and  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  an  attitude  of  unadulterated 
Americanism  which  has  had  a  wide  influence  upon  the  life 
of  the  Southwest,  including  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
There  have  been  many  fine,  self-sacrificing,  and  devoted 
Catholic  leaders  in  the  Southwest,  but  they  have  been 
handicapped  by  a  heritage  so  corrupt  and  a  system  so 
un-American  that  their  best  efforts  have  been  largely 
nullified.  And  yet  the  future  of  our  Spanish-Americans 
would  seem  to  lie  in  the  hands  of  the  Catholic  Church 
unless  that  institution  persists  in  "sinning  away  its  day 
of  grace."  If  she  will  but  substitute  a  religion  of  truth 
for  one  of  superstitution :  if  she  will  put  as  much  em- 
phasis upon  conduct  and  social  morality  as  she  now  puts 
upon  ceremony;  if  she  will  substitute  Americanism  for 
un-Americanism ;  if  she  will  raise  up  and  substitute  a 
native  leadership  for  a  foreign  leadership;  if  she  will  sub- 
stitute service  for  exploitation ;  and  if  she  will  assist  every 
Spanish-speaking  member  of  her  constituency  in  the 
United  States  to  master  and  speak  the  English  language, 
she  will  render  a  service  for  which  we  shall  as  a  nation 
have  genuine  cause  for  thanksgiving  and  which  will  help 
us  to  forget  some  of  the  errors  of  the  past. 


CHAPTER  V 

EDUCATION 

THE  many  recently  arrived  Mexican  families  in  the 
United  States  have  placed  the  school  systems  of  our 
Southwestern  states  under  an  unusual  strain.  The  mere 
increase  in  numbers,  coming  as  it  did  at  a  time  when  at- 
tention and  energy  were  taken  up  with  the  World  War, 
was  sufficient  embarrassment  in  countless  communities, 
but  the  introduction  of  a  large  group  of  non-English- 
speaking  children  brought  with  it  complications  and  prob- 
lems which  have  proved  much  more  difficult  of  solution 
than  has  the  mere  problem  of  numbers.  These  considera- 
tions, added  to  the  fact  that  both  New  Mexico  and  Texas 
have  been  slow  in  bringing  their  public  school  systems  to  ' 
efficiency,  and  to  the  further  fact  that  schools  all  over 
the  United  States  have  recently  been  seriously  embarrassed 
by  a  shortage  of  teachers  and  other  post-war  conditions, 
have  accentuated  an  already  difficult  situation. 

Writing  in  "El  Gringo"  as  early  as  1857,  W.  W.  H. 
Davis  said :  "The  standard  of  education  in  New  Mexico 
is  at  a  very  low  ebb,  and  there  is  a  larger  number  of  per- 
sons who  cannot  read  and  write  than  in  any  other  Ter- 
ritory in  the  Union.  The  number  attending  school  is 
given  as  460,  which  is  about  one  scholar  to  every  125 
inhabitants.  .  .  .  This  exhibits  a  fearful  amount  of  ig- 
norance among  the  people,  and  it  is  enough  to  make  us 
question  the  propriety  of  intrusting  them  with  the  power 

85 


86    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

to  make  their  own  laws.  It  was  always  the  policy  of 
Spain  and  Mexico  to  keep  her  people  in  ignorance,  and, 
so  far  as  New  Mexico  was  concerned,  they  seem  to  have 
carried  out  the  system  with  singular  faithfulness,  and  in 
no  country  in  the  world  that  lays  the  least  claim  to  civ- 
ilization has  general  education  and  a  cultivation  of  the 
arts  been  so  generally  neglected.  .  .  .  There  is  not  a 
native  physician  in  the  country,  nor  am  I  aware  that 
there  has  ever  been  one." 

At  best,  460  pupils  in  a  population  of  61,547  does  not 
make  a  very  satisfactory  showing.  Matters  did  not  im- 
prove rapidly,  however,  when  New  Mexico  became  a  Ter- 
ritory of  the  United  States.  The  Federal  government  did 
little  at  first  to  promote  education  and  New  Mexico  did 
not  have  a  public  school  law  until  1891. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  that  the  New  Mexico  Ter- 
ritorial Legislature  passed  a  bill  at  its  1855-1856  session 
establishing  a  common  school  system  to  be  supported  by 
public  taxation.  The  measure  was  submitted  to  the  peo- 
ple, and  thirty-seven  votes  were  cast  for  it;  a  total  of 
5,016  votes  was  recorded  as  opposed  to  the  measure.  It 
is  worthy  of  mention  that  about  this  time  the  United 
States  government  sent  a  box  of  books  as  a  gift  to  the 
Territory  with  which  it  might  start  a  territorial  library. 
The  territorial  legislature,  however,  refused  to  pay  the 
freight  charges  on  the  books  and  left  them  to  be  sold  for 
the  freight  or  destroyed  by  the  freight  agent.  Dr. 
Thomas  Harwood,  who  spent  half  a  century  in  New 
Mexico,  says  that  in  1870  "not  a  public  school  house  could 
be  found,  hardly  a  Bible  in  one  family  in  a  thousand,  and 
only  a  few  other  books;  hardly  a  public  road  or  a 
bridge;  .  .  .  hardly  an  American  plow,  wagon,  or 
buggy." 


EDUCATION  87 

In  1910,  48,697  persons  of  ten  years  of  age  or  over, 
or  20.2  per  cent  of  the  total  population  of  the  state,  were 
reported  as  illiterate. 

The  latest  biennial  report  of  the  State  Superintendent 
of  Public  Instruction,  published  in  1918,  gives  the  total 
school  population  (5  to  21  years)  of  New  Mexico  as 
121,829,  °f  whom  86,699  were  enrolled  in  school.  The 
average  attendance  was  56,398.  For  the  state  1,413 
schoolhouses  were  reported,  and  a  total  of  2,641  teachers 
was  employed.  A  recent  investigation  by  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation  into  the  efficiency  of  the  different  school  sys- 
tems in  the  United  States  places  New  Mexico  thirty-first 
among  the  states  of  the  Union.  This  rating  is  said  to 
have  been  based  upon  a  study  of  attendance,  training 
given,  progress  made  by  pupils,  amounts  expended  for 
buildings  and  supplies,  salaries  paid,  and  other  similar 
items.  New  Mexico  seems,  therefore,  to  have  made  very 
encouraging  progress  in  connection  with  her  schools. 
Such  a  report  cannot,  however,  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
case,  tell  the  whole  story,  for  New  Mexico  is  unique 
among  the  states. 

The  language  question  is  ever  at  the  front  in  New 
Mexico.  Shall  it  be  English,  or  shall  it  be  Spanish  ?  The 
Governor  and  a  certain  group  of  officials  have  had  one 
idea  and  another  group  has  had  another  idea.  Governor 
Larrazola  is  reported  to  be  strongly  in  favor  of  having 
the  first  few  years  of  instruction  given  in  Spanish  in  com- 
munities where  it  is  desired.  This  plan  has  not  yet  been 
legalized  in  the  state,  however.  The  present  state  law 
provides,  "That  Spanish  as  a  separate  subject  shall  be 
taught  in  any  public  elementary  or  high  school  in  the 
state  when  a  majority  vote  of  the  board  of  school  direc- 
tors or  board  of  education  in  charge  of  such  school  shall 


88    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

direct"  .  .  .  but  that,  "Except  as  herein  provided,  the 
books  used  and  the  instruction  given  in  said  schools  shall 
be  in  the  English  language;  provided  that  Spanish  may 
be  used  in  explaining  the  meaning  of  English  words  to 
Spanish-speaking  pupils  who  do  not  understand  English." 
The  law  is  perhaps  beyond  reproach,  but  it  is  only  fair 
to  say  that,  in  the  rural  regions  particularly,  it  does  not 
operate  to  produce  any  very  great  facility  in  the  use  of 
the  English  language  among  pupils  who  come  to  school 
from  Spanish-speaking  homes.  The  reason  of  course  is 
not  far  to  seek.  Thousands  of  pupils  come  to  the  public 
school  who  have  never  spoken  a  word  of  English.  Very 
likely  their  teachers  are  also  from  Spanish-speaking 
homes.  It  is  inevitable  that  under  those  conditions  much 
of  the  conversation  in  the  schoolroom  will  be  in  Spanish, 
while  on  the  playground  and  at  home  Spanish  is  the  only 
language  heard  or  used.  The  ability  to  pronounce  a  few 
English  words  from  a  book,  words  the  meaning  of  which 
is  often  unknown,  does  not  add  greatly  to  the  pupil's 
knowledge  of  a  language  which  is  strange  to  him  and 
which  he  has  little  occasion  to  use  in  school  and  no  occa- 
sion to  use  outside  of  school.  Thus  I  rode  recently  for 
two  days  over  the  mountains  of  New  Mexico  with  a 
Spanish-American,  a  citizen,  born  and  raised  in  the  United 
States  and  trained  in  the  public  schools  of  New  Mexico, 
and  yet,  if  his  life  had  depended  upon  his  ability  to  have 
spoken  a  complete  sentence  in  the  English  language,  I 
do  not  think  that  he  could  have  accomplished  the  feat. 
And  his  case  is  more  or  less  typical  of  the  cases  of  thou- 
sands of  others,  who  under  similar  conditions  grow  up 
without  being  able  to  read  either  English  or  Spanish  and 
with  a  speaking  knowledge  of  Spanish  only.  We  face 
here  a  very  difficult  situation  and  one  which  calls  neither 


EDUCATION  89 

for  harsh  criticism  nor  for  harsh  measures,  but  rather  for 
sympathy,  helpfulness  and  insight.  There  are  many 
factors  involved  here  in  addition  to  the  simple  pedagogical 
matter  of  teaching  a  language.  Of  course  the  language 
must  be  taught  persistently  and  insistently,  but  what  is 
one  going  to  do  with  it  after  he  has  learned  it  if  it  is  a 
language  which  his  father  and  mother  and  his  neighbors 
do  not  understand.  It  would  seem  that  these  communi- 
ties which  are  so  distinctly  Spanish  to-day  must  inevitably 
pass  through  a  bi-lingual  period  before  English  can  finally 
dominate,  and  during  that  period  the  school  has  an  un- 
usually important  and  an  unusually  difficult  task  to  per- 
form. In  communities  where  there  is  a  larger  proportion 
of  Anglo-Saxon  stock  the  problem  is  a  simpler  one,  un- 
less, as  happens  in  many  cases,  the  Spanish  element  be- 
comes segregated  and  lives  largely  to  itself.  The  whole 
problem  is  aggravated  by  the  tendency  of  Spanish-Ameri- 
can boys  and  girls  to  cut  the  school  years  as  short  as  the 
law  will  alloy,  and  in  many  cases  even  shorter  than  that. 

In  the  larger  centers  along  the  Border,  such  as  San 
Antonio,  El  Paso,  Los  Angeles,  and  others,  we  have  simi- 
lar problems  with  all  sorts  of  variations. 

As  early  as  1915  Miss  Elizabeth  Barbour,  School 
Superintendent  for  Brownsville,  Texas,  said,  in  speaking 
of  her  pupils  in  Brownsville,  "of  those  entering  the  first 
grade,  ninety-two  per  cent  are  unable  to  understand  one 
word  of  English,  much  less  to  speak  it.  Those  of  you 
who  have  three  or  four  such  children  in  your  classes  can 
have  no  idea  of  what  it  means  to  have  the  numbers  re- 
versed and  have  three  or  four  English-speaking  children 
among  a  class  of  non-English-speaking  ones."  Some  of 
these  children  of  whom  Miss  Barbour  speaks  were  not 
only  American-born  but  of  American-born  parents,  and 


90    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

some  of  American-born  grandparents.  All  of  these  Bor- 
der towns  have  recently  received  a  fresh  influx  of  Mex- 
icans. From  these  Mexican  homes  come  throngs  of 
bright  boys  and  girls  with  all  the  good  wishes  of  fond 
parents  who  want  their  children  to  enjoy  all  of  the  ad- 
vantages which  American  children  have.  In  an  over- 
whelming proportion  of  cases,  however,  their  hopes  are 
doomed  to  disappointment.  The  entire  trail  of  the  public 
school  in  the  Southwest  is  strewn  with  the  blasted  hopes 
of  Mexican  boys  and  girls.  By  the  time  high  school  is 
reached  there  are  few  left,  and  of  those  who  complete  a 
high  school  course  the  number  is  small  indeed.  The  pro- 
portion varies  from  city  to  city,  but  in  general  it  is  always 
small  and  sometimes  almost  negligible.  In  San  Antonio, 
for  example,  where  1 1 ,000  Mexican  pupils  are  enrolled  in 
the  city  schools,  only  250  were  found  in  high  school  and 
not  more  than  ten  Mexican  graduates  were  included  in  a 
recent  graduating  class.  In  El  Paso  with  one  half  of 
the  grade  pupils  of  Mexican  parentage  the  ratio  in  the 
high  school  is  100  in  a  total  enrollment  of  1,400.  Recent 
graduating  classes  have  had  from  four  to  ten  Mexican 
students.  The  Superintendent,  A.  H.  Higby,  says  "The 
Mexican  children  drop  out  in  great  numbers  at  about  the 
fourth  grade,"  Mr.  Harry  M.  Shafer  of  the  Los  An- 
geles city  schools  says,  "Very  few  Mexican  pupils  reach 
the  high  school  and  almost  none  graduate  from  high 
schools."  Public  school  authorities  have  been  frank  to 
place  part  of  the  blame  for  this  situation  upon  a  course 
of  study  conceived  for  use  with  American  boys  and  girls 
and  upon  methods  designed  for  use  with  pupils  who 
come  from  a  different  environment  and  who  already 
understand  the  English  language.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  part  of  the  difficulty  lies  here,  but  there  are  many 


EDUCATION  91 

other  contributing  causes  such  as  economic  pressure,  un- 
dernourishment which  undermines  ambition,  the  absolute 
lack  of  home  assistance,  and,  perhaps  not  least,  a  native 
sensitiveness  which  makes  unfavorable  comparison  with 
other  pupils  unendurable.  This  latter  factor  is  accent- 
uated in  communities  where  bitter  race  prejudice  has  been 
allowed  to  develop,  in  some  cases  making  the  life  of  a 
Mexican  pupil  well-nigh  intolerable  so  long  as  he  stays  in 
school.  Fortunately,  this  condition  is  not  universal,  but 
it  is  becoming  altogether  too  common  especially  in  Texas 
towns. 

Speaking  of  the  Mexicans  in  San  Antonio,  W.  J.  Know 
says: 

"They  will  deny  themselves  the  bare  necessities  of  life 
that  their  children  may  be  supplied  school  books.  Nothing 
that  will  benefit  or  uplift  is  withheld.  Not  only  do  they 
think  of  their  own,  but  you  will  find  in  nearly  every  family 
some  orphan  who  receives  the  same  consideration  as  their 
own  child.  As  is  often  the  case  with  foreigners,  you 
never  hear  of  a  Mjxican  taking  his  child  out  of  school  for 
the  reason  that  it  nas  had  opportunity  enough  and  must 
go  to  work  to  repay  parents.  The  children  are  only  taken 
out  of  school  for  sheer  need,  or  because  they  are  over- 
sized and  ashamed  to  be  with  smaller  ones,  or  because 
of  race  prejudice  against  them  being  so  strong  that  they 
forego  an  education  rather  than  submit  to  the  conditions 
imposed." 

Unfortunately  one  or  more  of  these  factors  is  at  work 
in  a  sufficient  number  of  cases  to  make  the  life  of  the 
Mexican  pupil  in  many  cases  a  very  unpleasant  one,  and 
to  make  him  welcome  an  interruption  of  his  school  activ- 
ities. Of  those  who  do  persist  in  school  a  large  propor- 
tion are  from  the  better  Mexican  homes  where  better 


92    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

opportunities  and  more  adequate  food  are  available.  It 
should  be  noted,  however,  that  the  child  of  a  Mexican 
peon  does  not  differ  in  mental  ability  from  the  more  for- 
tunate Mexican  child,  as  a  peon  is  only  a  poor  Mexican. 

The  language  difficulty  is  of  course  a  serious  one.  The 
Mexican  pupil  is  not  only  expected  to  learn  all  that  an 
English-speaking  pupil  learns  but  to  learn  it  in  a  language 
which  he  does  not  understand.  Much  of  the  time  he  does 
not  know  what  his  teacher  is  talking  about,  and  the 
tendency  is  to  learn  the  English  which  he  does  learn  in  a 
parrot-like  fashion.  Even  in  the  schools  which  are  made 
up  largely  or  exclusively  of  Mexicans  or  Mex- Americans 
the  pressure  to  "make  the  grade"  each  year  is  often  the 
same  as  in  other  schools,  so  that  at  best  the  pupil  faces 
a  very  difficult  task.  Some  schools  provide  separate 
classes  for  those  who  do  not  understand  English.  In 
California  some  cities  segregate  the  children  of  Mexican 
parentage  during  the  first  three  years  of  school  life.  In 
congested  Mexican  centers  segregation  becomes  almost 
automatic,  and  in  some  cases,  particularly  in  Texas,  race 
prejudice  brings  about  segregation. 

Of  course  the  child  of  poorer  Mexican  parentage  is  al- 
ways handicapped  both  in  ideals,  incentives,  and  actual 
achievement  by  the  limitations  of  his  home  environment. 
The  ignorance  of  the  Mexican  is  always  the  bond  which 
binds  both  him  and  his  children.  This  ignorance  often 
extends  to  the  simplest  details  which  teachers  may  per- 
haps be  excused  for  taking  for  granted.  Thus  a  social 
worker  recently  found  a  girl  in  a  poor  Mexican  home  in 
distress.  She  had  been  told  to  write  a  composition  upon 
the  "cow  in  commerce,"  but  a  sympathetic  conversation 
with  her  revealed  the  fact  that  she  did  not  know  that  beef- 
steak came  from  a  cow  or  that  butter  was  made  from 


EDUCATION  93 

milk.  The  utter  lack  of  home  guidance  had  left  her  to 
grow  up  at  the  mercy  of  her  pitifully  limited  environment. 
Nor  is  the  problem  of  attendance  an  easy  one  to  solve 
among  Mexicans  in  the  United  States.  There  is  much 
seasonal  work  and  much  moving  from  place  to  place,  and 
there  are  many  other  factors  present  to  complicate  the 
situation.  In  the  city  the  task  is  always  difficult,  and  in 
the  country  it  becomes  in  some  cases  almost  hopeless. 
For  example,  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Ele- 
mentary Schools  for  the  State  of  California  published  in 
1919  states  casually  that  a  recent  visit  to  Imperial  County 
has  revealed  the  fact  that  there  are  hundreds  of  pupils 
of  school  age  not  in  school,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  diligent 
efforts  of  attendance  officers.  Now  Imperial  County  is 
one  of  the  very  southern  counties  of  California  on  the 
Mexican  Border  and  inhabited  by  thousands  of  Mexicans. 
The  same  condition  of  non-attendance  at  the  public  schools 
can  be  duplicated  in  practically  every  rural  region  in  the 
Southwest  inhabited  largely  by  Mexicans.  In  Texas  it 
is  only  recently  that  there  has  been  a  compulsory  educa- 
tion law.  For  the  year  beginning  September  I,  1916,  a 
total  of  sixty  days'  attendance  was  required  of  children 
between  eight  and  fourteen  years  of  age;  in  1917  this 
was  raised  to  eighty  days ;  and  in  1918  to  100  days.  There 
are,  however,  numerous  exceptions,  as,  for  example: 
"Any  child  living  more  than  two  and  one-half  miles  by 
direct  and  traveled  road  from  the  nearest  public  school 
supported  for  children  of  the  same  race  and  color  of  such 
child,  and  with  no  free  transportation  provided."  In  the 
same  way,  "Any  child  more  than  twelve  years  of  age  who 
has  satisfactorily  completed  the  work  of  the  fourth  grade 
of  a  standard  elementary  school  of  seven  grades,  and 
whose  services  are  needed  in  support  of  a  parent  or  other 


94    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

person  standing  in  parental  relation  to  the  child"  may 
be  exempted  from  further  attendance  at  school.  In  New 
Mexico  the  period  of  compulsory  school  attendance  is 
from  six  to  sixteen  years,  except  that  pupils  fourteen 
years  of  age  or  over  may  be  excused  from  school  if  they 
are  gainfully  employed. 

In  spite  of  limitations,  however,  the  public  school  is 
probably  rendering  a  larger  service  and  accomplishing 
more  in  the  way  of  Americanization  in  our  Border  states 
than  any  other  institution.  For  it  is  a  work  of  American- 
ization, no  matter  whether  the  particular  pupil  concerned 
is  the  child  of  a  Mexican  refugee,  only  temporarily  in  the 
United  States,  or  whether  he  is  destined  to  become  a  full- 
fledged  American  citizen  and  spend  his  life  in  this  coun- 
try. During  the  World  War  a  large  amount  of  patriotic 
training  was  introduced  into  the  public  schools,  and  it 
was  not  at  all  uncommmon  to  see  the  children  of  recently 
arrived  Mexican  parents  shouting  as  vigorously  for  the 
United  States  and  waving  the  American  flag  as  energet- 
ically as  native-born  American  children. 

The  field  of  education  has  not  been  left  entirely  to  the 
public  school,  however.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  or- 
ganized some  parochial  schools  at  an  early  date,  and  there 
are  still  a  number  of  such  schools  serving  Spanish-Amer- 
icans, particularly  in  New  Mexico.  A  work  which  has 
been  of  larger  significance  from  the  standpoint  of  general 
training  and  the  promotion  of  Americanism  has  been 
done  by  the  Protestant  churches.  As  early  as  1852  Pro- 
testant mission  school  work  for  Mexicans  was  begun  at 
Brownsville,  Texas,  and  about  the  same  time  schools 
began  to  be  opened  in  New  Mexico.  For  a  long  time 
education  in  New  Mexico  was  largely  confined  to  church 
schools.  A  great  many  of  these  schools  have  been  con- 


EDUCATION  95 

ducted,  and  their  influence  has  been  incalculable.  The 
custom  has  been  for  Protestant  agencies  to  give  up  their 
distinctive  day  schools  as  soon  as  communities  have  been 
in  a  position  to  give  satisfactory  elementry  education  to 
their  boys  and  girls,  and  in  some  cases  even  long  before 
that  ideal  state  has  been  attained. 

During  the  year  1919-1920  forty  Protestant  mission 
schools  were  in  existence  in  the  four  Border  states  of 
Texas,  New  Mexico  (including  a  small  part  of  Southern 
Colorado),  Arizona,  and  California.  Eighteen  of  these 
schools  are  boarding-schools,  as  follows :  Eight  girls' 
boarding-schools,  seven  boys'  boarding-schools,  and  three 
co-educational  schools.  There  are  two  girls'  boarding- 
schools  in  California  and  one  for  boys;  in  Arizona  there 
is  one  girls'  boarding-school  and  none  for  boys;  there 
are  six  boarding-schools  in  New  Mexico,  two  for  girls, 
two  for  boys,  and  two  co-educational;  Texas  has  eight  of 
these  Protestant  boarding-schools,  three  for  girls,  four 
for  boys,  and  one  co-educational.  The  chief  centers  of 
this  boarding-school  work  are  Santa  Fe  and  Albuquerque, 
New  Mexico ;  El  Paso,  San  Antonio,  and  Laredo,  Texas ; 
Tucson,  Arizona;  and  Los  Angeles,  California.  The 
Protestant  day  schools  which  remain  are  to  be  found 
chiefly  in  New  Mexico  and  Texas. 

These  mission  schools  for  Mexicans  in  the  Border  states 
represent  a  property  investment  of  something  over  a  mil- 
lion dollars,  a  teaching  staff  of  157,  and  an  annual  budget 
of  not  less  than  $150,000.  Just  at  present  this  figure  bids 
fair  to  be  largely  increased  by  the  erection  of  new  building 
and  the  addition  of  needed  equipment.  One  school  alone 
is  putting  $100,000  into  additional  buildings.  During  the 
year  1919-1920  3,210  pupils  were  enrolled  in  these 


96   NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

Protestant  mission  schools  for  Mexicans  and  Spanish- 
Americans. 

Something  of  the  popularity  of  these  schools  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  although  tuition  is  charged 
at  practically  all  of  these  schools  they  are  in  most  cases 
filled  to  overflowing.  During  the  year  1919-1920  one 
school  alone  turned  away  more  than  150  applicants  for 
admission  and  for  whom  it  had  no  room.  In  New  Mex- 
ico it  is  particularly  striking  that  hundreds  of  Spanish- 
American  parents  pay  their  taxes  to  support  the  public 
school  and  then  voluntarily  pay  tuition  to  send  their  chil- 
dren to  a  Protestant  mission  school  in  the  same  com- 
munity. And  this  is  done  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
parents  are  for  the  most  part  Catholics  and  in  spite  of 
the  strong  and  often  bitter  opposition  of  the  itinerant 
priest.  The  fact  that  the  standard  of  instruction  is  higher 
in  the  mission  school  than  in  the  public  school  and  that  in 
many  cases  the  mission  school  offers  the  one  opportunity 
to  learn  the  English  language  accounts  for  its  popularity. 
Then,  too,  the  fine  unselfish  spirit  of  the  mission  school 
teachers  has  won  the  confidence  of  the  people.  No  undue 
religious  pressure  is  put  upon  the  pupils  in  these  schools, 
but  there  is  a  persistent  attempt  to  inculcate  the  Christian 
virtues  and  to  hold  up  Christian  ideals  of  life  and  conduct 
before  the  pupils.  The  only  pupils  who  consistently  and 
persistently  refuse  to  attend  these  schools  in  the  com- 
munities where  they  exist  are  the  children  of  Penitentes. 
On  the  Border  these  schools  often  serve  an  important 
international  constituency,  and  scores  of  Mexican  boys 
and  girls  come  regularly  across  the  international  line  to 
attend  Protestant  mission  schools. 

Nor  are  these  pupils  of  mission  schools  all  from  the 
poorer  homes.  Many  of  them  come  from  homes  of 


EDUCATION  97 

Mexican  government  officials  of  importance.  General 
Emilio  Salinas,  brother-in-law  to  Carranza,  and  formerly 
Mexican  Consul  in  New  York  City,  sent  his  son  to  a 
missionary  boarding-school  conducted  by  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  at  Laredo,  Texas.  Another 
Mexican  consul  has  several  children  at  present  attending 
another  mission  school  in  California,  and  the  list  might 
be  greatly  extended  of  similar  cases  on  either  side  of  the 
Border.  The  young  woman  who  was  stenographer  to 
former  President  Madero  of  Mexico  recently  graduated 
from  a  mission  school  in  California,  and  expects  to  give 
her  life  in  sen-ice  to  her  people.  A  young  man,  who, 
at  the  time  the  United  States  Army  entered  Vera  Cruz, 
was  an  officer  under  Villa,  came  across  the  Border, 
was  reached  by  a  home  missionary  and  is  now  studying 
in  a  mission  school  to  prepare  himself  for  the  Christian 
ministry. 

The  training  in  these  mission  boarding-schools  includes 
elementary,  secondary,  and  many  special  courses.  One 
school  is  planning  to  extend  its  course  to  include  a  full 
college  training.  At  present  the  girls  are  taught  cooking, 
sewing,  music,  and  various  household  arts  in  addition  to 
the  regular  elementary  and  secondary  courses  offered.  At 
Holding  Institute,  Laredo,  Texas,  one  of  the  most  popu- 
lar departments,  both  among  the  girls  and  the  boys,  is 
the  business  department,  where  stenography,  typewriting, 
bookkeeping  and  other  related  branches  are  taught.  Sev- 
eral schools  are  located  on  large  farms;  the  Texas-Mex- 
ican Institute  at  Kingsville,  Texas,  has  700  acres  and  the 
boys  spend  half  a  day  in  the  schoolroom  and  half  a  day 
at  work  on  the  farm ;  the  Rio  Grande  Institute  at  Albu- 
querque, also  on  a  large  well-equipped  farm,  furnishes 
similar  opportunities  for  various  kinds  of  farm  training. 


98    NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

Many  schools  have  wood-working  or  other  manual  train- 
ing. At  the  Spanish-American  Institute  for  boys  at  Gar- 
dena,  California,  one  of  the  popular  departments  is  the 
printing  department.  This  fine,  well-equipped  department 
not  only  trains  skilled  printers  but  it  incidentally  does 
all  of  the  school  printing  and  handles  a  large  volume  of 
outside  work.  As  one  of  its  activities  it  publishes  every 
two  weeks  a  paper  entitled  "The  Mexican  Boy."  The 
writing,  editing,  typesetting,  and  printing  of  this  paper 
are  done  by  the  boys  themselves  as  a  part  of  their  training. 
The  Lydia  Patterson  Institute  in  El  Paso  is  planning  to 
add  to  its  present  excellent  course  a  printing  department, 
tailor  shop,  carpenter  shop,  shoe  shop,  and  an  auto  shop. 
These  are  only  illustrations  of  the  varied  training  which 
these  mission  schools  are  rendering  and  are  projecting  for 
the  future. 

The  boarding-school  seems  to  offer  an  unusually  good 
opportunity  for  non-English-speaking  pupils  to  get  that 
personal  contact  with  their  teachers  which  seems  to  be 
almost  indispensable  to  satisfactory  progress.  Graduates 
and  former  pupils  of  these  schools  are  everywhere  giving 
a  good  account  of  themselves;  some  have  gone  on  to  col- 
lege and  then  to  professional  schools  of  different  sorts; 
and  they  have  filled  every  sort  of  position  from  that  of 
state  legislator  to  sheep  herder.  Some  are  ministers, 
some  are  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretaries,  some  are  in  business, 
many  are  teachers,  and  many  have  gone  out  to  establish 
Christian,  American  homes  after  years  of  living  in  the 
environment  of  a  Christian  boarding-school.  In  some 
sections  of  New  Mexico  a  large  proportion  of  the  public 
school  teachers  have  been  trained  entirely  or  in  part  in 
mission  schools.  Thus  in  many  ways  the  mission  schools 
for  Mexicans  in  the  Southwest  are  exerting  an  Ameri- 


EDUCATION  99 

canizing  and  a  Christianizing  influence  quite  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  actual  numbers  enrolled  in  the  schools. 

The  following  is  the  first  composition  in  English  writ- 
ten by  a  little  Mexican  girl  in  a  mission  school,  after  she 
had  mastered  the  language  enough  to  begin  to  write  in  it : 

A   MEXICAN   GIRL'S   COMPOSITION 

"One  apon  time  live  a  boy,  has  (his)  name  were  Frank. 
He  Askt  has  mother  for  nice  party  on  Holloheen  night. 
Mother  sed  all  right  if  you  be  good  boy.  It  was  Holloheen 
night  in  the  little  house  and  it  looked  so  perty  with  somany 
flags  and  punkens  and  paper  turkeys. 

"The  Yacalentars  (Jack-o-Lanterns)  were  all  lighted 
bright  and  many  friends  come  to  Frank's  house  and  his 
mother  made  a  many  pis  and  cakes.  When  friends  come 
they  smelled  chile  cooking  and  said,  'What  a  perty  smell/ 

"In  the  center  of  little  house  they  had  picnic  with  a 
table  of  punkens  and  cranberres  and  somany  kinds  of 
fruit  and  pi.  Frank  received  a  big  package  and  he  got  so 
happy  and  then  he  say  'Everbodie  get  round  me'  and  then 
everbodie  looked  in  package.  Everbodie  beginning  to 
laughed.  There  was  a  big  bone  and  a  dead  rat. 

"Frank  say  'Everbodie  danse.'  He  gets  his  girl  to 
piano.  Mother  pulled  his  ears  and  hit  him  so  hart  and 
made  a  ball  (bump)  on  his  head  an  everbodie  got  scare. 
Mother  say  'I  tole  you  I  don  wan  see  you  dansing.'  Party 
stop  and  all  say  good  nite." 

In  contrast  to  the  foregoing  and  illustrative  of  the 
progress  both  in  the  use  of  English  and  in  the  inculcation 
of  lofty  ideals  and  patriotic  sentiments  which  takes  place 
in  the  mission  schools  is  the  following  essay  written  by 
a  Spanish-American  boy  about  to  graduate  from  the  high 
school  department  of  the  Menaul  School  in  Albuquerque : 


100  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

PATRIOTISM 

"Patriotism  is  love  of  country.  It  is  that  sentiment 
which  enables  us  to  study,  deeply  interested,  our  country's 
past,  with  intentions  of  learning  what  it  stands  for.  It 
is  this  sentiment  which  makes  great  statesmen  out  of 
mere  men,  men  who  sacrifice  everything  for  their  coun- 
try. It  leads  us  to  watch  the  progress  of  our  coun- 
try, do  all  in  our  power  to  insure  and  nothing  to  prevent 
it.  A  real  patriot  watches  the  program  of  his  country  and 
sees  himself  an  actor  taking  an  important  role  in  it.  He  is 
a  man  who  looks  to  his  duty  before  his  rights. 

"To  what  do  we  attribute  the  success  with  which  our 
army  was  organized  during  the  world  war?  Why  is  it 
that  labor  and  capital  both  forgot  their  troubles?  Was 
it  not  a  crime  punishable  by  imprisonment  to  spread  prop- 
aganda of  any  sort  against  our  government  ?  What  was 
it  that  brought  our  soldiers  to  regard  each  other  as  broth- 
ers regardless  of  nationality?  We  were  big  enough  then 
to  overlook  petty  questions.  All  was  done  to  secure  our 
success  as  a  nation.  'Unity,  team-work,'  we  said,  'will 
bring  about  the  victory  of  our  armies.'  We  had  rights 
as  we  have  now,  but  duty  came  first ;  rights  were  ignored. 

"Certainly  America  has  been  the  melting  pot  of  the 
world.  But  in  this  pot,  no  one  will  doubt,  there  is  a 
residue  which  needs  a  higher  temperature  to  melt  it.  Not 
so  much  legislation  as  warm  American  hearts.  We  have 
been  cold  to  the  foreigner.  We  must  be  interested  in  him 
if  we  are  to  make  him  a  true  American  citizen.  These 
people  have  acquired  very  different  habits  of  living,  con- 
sequently it  is  hard  for  them  to  break  away  suddenly 
from  these  habits.  It  is  only  by  realizing  that  they  are 
really  our  brothers  that  they  can  come  to  learn  our  lan- 
guage and,  in  turn,  our  customs. 

"This  war  did  away,  in  a  great  measure,  with  both  class 


EDUCATION  101 

and  race  distinction,  but  it  also  made  the  foreigner  proud. 
He  learned  that  he  could  do  work  equal  to  any  man's, 
that  he  could  fight  as  well  as  others.  No  wonder  that  we 
do  not  find  him  as  submissive  as  before.  The  hyphenated 
American  is  to  blame  for  not  making  himself  thoroughly 
American,  as  is  the  so-called  American  for  not  giving  him 
a  better  chance.  Neither  is  willing  to  make  any  sacrifice 
for  the  good  of  the  country.  It  was  an  extreme  sense  of 
patriotism  which  made  us  love  our  brothers.  It  was  all 
to  insure  our  country  against  any  possibility  of  its  working 
power  being  reduced.  But  where  is  this  love  of  country 
gone?  Why  not  give  as  much  of  our  energy  to  insure 
the  progress  of  our  country  now  as  we  did  during  the 
war  ?  Why  not  be  as  great  a  civilian  nation  as  we  were  a 
soldier  nation? 

"We  have  a  patriotism  that  is  extremely  beneficial  to 
a  country  and  another  that  ought  never  to  exist.  There 
are  people  who  leave  their  mother  country  for  one  reason 
or  another.  They  see  some  advantage  in  the  country  to 
which  they  go.  But  when  they  get  there  they  do  not 
swear  allegiance  from  their  hearts  to  that  country  which 
offers  them  better  opportunities.  This  kind  of  ore  coming 
into  our  melting  pot  is  absolutely  out  of  place  in  our 
country.  We  say  nothing  against  this  patriotism,  but  if 
we  must  love  our  mother  country  wherever  we  are  the 
best  thing  to  do  is  to  stay  there  and  cause  no  trouble  else- 
where by  a  too  deeply  rooted  patriotism.  If  Greek, 
Italian,  French  or  Mexican  comes  here  and  remains  so 
our  pot  has  no  power  over  them.  We  shall  have  to  cast 
them  away  as  worthless  slag. 

"It  has  been  proven  that  patriotism  makes  us  act  as  a 
body,  brings  us  to  see  our  relations  to  each  other.  Then 
why  not  bring  this  sentiment  back  into  our  hearts  and 
keep  it  forever  there?  It  is  the  keynote  to  national  and 
individual  prosperity." 


102  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

The  foregoing  may  have  some  defects  as  an  essay,  but 
as  an  expression  of  pure  Americanism  and  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  contribution  which  mission  schools  are  making 
to  the  lives  of  thousands  of  our  Spanish-speaking  boys 
and  girls  in  the  Southwest  it  is  pertinent. 

The  educational  task  among  Mexicans  and  Spanish- 
Americans  in  the  United  States  is  not,  however,  limited 
to  the  period  of  childhood  and  youth.  We  face  the  prob- 
lem of  dealing  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  adults  who 
do  not  speak  the  English  language  and  who  do  not  under- 
stand our  customs  and  our  forms  of  government.  A 
recent  study  of  1,081  Mexican  families  in  the  Plaza  sec- 
tion of  Los  Angeles  revealed  the  fact  that  fifty- five  per 
cent  of  the  men  and  seventy- four  per  cent  of  the  women 
could  not  speak  English;  sixty-seven  per  cent  of  the  men 
and  eighty-four  per  cent  of  the  women  could  not  read 
English;  and  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  men  and  eighty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  women  could  not  write  English.  Of 
the  families  studied,  more  than  sixty  per  cent  had  been  in 
Los  Angeles  more  than  three  years;  fifteen  per  cent  had 
been  in  the  City  less  than  a  year.  The  excellent  work 
done  by  the  public  schools  and  other  agencies  of  Los 
Angeles  makes  it  seem  likely  that  the  situation  here,  so 
far  as  illiteracy  is  concerned,  is  better  than  in  many  other 
centers. 

Up  to  date  no  very  great  progress  has  been  made  in 
the  teaching  of  English  to  adults  of  Mexican  origin.  A 
number  of  churches  have  maintained,  and  are  maintaining, 
English  classes  for  adults.  The  Goodwill  Industries  of 
Southern  California  teaches  English  to  its  employees. 
The  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  at  its  International  Institutes,  has  en- 
rolled some  hundreds  of  adults  in  English  classes,  and 
the  pupils  have  included  representatives  from  some  of 


EDUCATION  103 

the  more  prosperous  Spanish-speaking  homes  in  the 
United  States.  Various  other  social  agencies  have  done 
more  or  less  of  this  work.  The  total  of  all  adults  included 
in  English  classes  has.  relatively  speaking,  been  small. 
Most  adults  have  been  left  to  pick  up  the  English  lan- 
guage in  connection  with  their  regular  employment,  and, 
when  this  does  not  provide  the  opportunity  to  learn  Eng- 
lish, the  opportunity  has  not  been  provided.  In  the  case 
of  the  women  the  opportunity  has  very  naturally  been 
much  less  than  in  the  case  of  the  men,  and  this  has  been 
unfortunate  for  a  number  of  reasons.  For  example,  in 
cities  where  unprecedentedly  high  wages  are  being  offered 
for  housework  Mexican  women  are  unable  to  qualify  for 
the  positions  offered  because  they  are  not  familiar  with 
American  ways  of  housekeeping  and  because  their  lan- 
guage limitations  will  not  permit  them  to  ask  questions 
or  to  receive  instructions  from  their  would-be  employers. 
The  language  question  is  such  a  large  and  important 
one  that  it  is  to  be  doubted  whether  adequate  progress 
will  be  made  in  handling  it  until  it  is  taken  up  systemat- 
ically by  some  state  or  national  agency.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  a  real  embarrassment  on  the  part  of  certain 
Mexican  young  people  in  the  United  States,  because  of 
the  limited  facilities  offered  for  perfecting  themselves  in 
the  use  of  Spanish  and  for  training  in  Spanish  literature. 
A  considerable  number  of  these  Americanized  young  folks 
later  become  teachers  of  public  schools  in  Mexico,  and 
they  must,  in  order  to  do  this,  perfect  themselves  in  Span- 
ish. Some  schools  on  the  Border,  therefore,  make  much 
of  the  study  of  Spanish,  and  in  some  cases,  particularly 
where  a  school  is  serving  regularly  an  international  con- 
stituency, all  instruction  is  given  both  in  English  and  in 
Spanish.  Of  course  it  may  be  argued  that  we  are  not 


104  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

obligated  to  train  teachers  for  schools  in  Old  Mexico. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  doubted  whether  we  could 
do  any  finer  piece  of  service  for  Mexico  than  to  do  just 
that  thing.  A  generation  of  teachers  trained  in  American 
schools  and  inculcated  with  American  ideals  would  not 
only  do  much  for  Mexico,  but  it  would  provide  a  surer 
and  cheaper  protection  for  the  United  States  than  armies 
and  navies  can  ever  furnish. 

In  many  informal  ways  educational  work  is  extended 
among  Mexicans  in  the  United  States.  Through  mothers' 
clubs  many  sorts  of  instruction  are  given,  such  as  instruc- 
tion in  the  care  of  babies,  the  preparation  of  food,  the 
care  of  the  home  and  similar  subjects.  For  the  young 
people  there  is  a  limited  number  of  literary  clubs,  debating 
societies,  branch  libraries,  Boy  Scouts,  Girl  Scouts,  Boy 
Indians,  sewing  classes,  business  classes,  wood-working 
classes,  basket  ball  teams,  kindergartens,  day  nurseries, 
baseball  clubs  and  numerous  similar  organizations  and 
activities  carried  on  in  connection  with  various  churches, 
social  centers,  and  other  organizations. 

The  total  amount  of  educational  work  which  is  being 
done  for  and  with  our  Spanish-speaking  people  is  very 
large,  and  there  is  every  reason  for  encouragement  not 
only  from  the  fact  that  for  the  most  part  educational  op- 
portunities are  eagerly  grasped  after,  but  also  because  the 
Mexican  has  demonstrated  the  fact,  beyond  peradventure 
of  disproval,  that  with  adequate  nourishment  and  under 
a  favorable  environment  he  has  the  ability  to  profit  to  the 
utmost  from  the  very  best  educational  opportunities  which 
we  can  give  him.  And  the  very  fact  that  mission  schools 
charging  tuition  on  the  Border  are  filled  to  overflowing 
and  are  turning  away  hundreds  of  applicants  every  year 
for  lack  of  room  to  accommodate  them  is  but  one  of  many 


EDUCATION  105 

circumstances  which  indicate  the  eagerness  of  both  parents 
and  children  for  the  very  best  which  we  have  to  offer. 
Incidentally,  in  this  connection,  it  would  seem  to  be  sig- 
nificant that  in  one  boarding-school  for  Mexican  pupils  a 
set  of  "The  Book  of  Knowledge"  placed  in  the  library 
of  the  school  was  almost  worn  out  from  constant  use 
the  first  year. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A  FORWARD  LOOK 

"WILL  they  all  go  back  to  Mexico  as  soon  as  conditions 
become  settled  there?" 

This  question  has  been  asked  again  and  again,  and  is 
still  being  asked.  What  will  happen  when  the  Mexicans 
on  the  Border  become  reasonably  assured  that  conditions 
in  Mexico  have  become  stabilized,  that  their  lives  and 
property  will  be  safe  back  in  the  homeland,  and  that 
economic  conditions  have  sufficiently  improved  to  warrant 
the  establishment  of  a  home  there. 

So  many  unexpected  things  have  happened  in  the  days 
that  have  passed  that  no  one  but  a  prophet  would  be 
justified  in  making  an  authentic  statement  on  this  inter- 
esting point.  Nevertheless,  I  venture  the  prediction  that 
the  last  decade  has  ushered  in  for  us  an  entirely  new  per- 
manent situation  so  far  as  the  Mexican  in  the  United 
States  is  concerned.  Many  Mexicans  will,  of  course,  re- 
turn to  Mexico,  but  it  is  also  to  be  expected  that  many 
other  Mexicans  will  come  to  the  United  States.  The 
stream  which  has  been  flowing  so  freely  in  the  recent  past 
has  worn  too  smooth  a  channel  to  be  suddenly  checked 
unless  very  radical  measures  are  taken  to  check  it.  Under 
present  conditions  the  Mexican  is  eagerly  welcomed  in  this 
country.  Never  did  so  many  Mexicans  have  relatives  and 
friends  in  the  United  States;  never  did  they  know  so 
much  about  the  United  States  as  now,  and  it  is  perhaps 

106 


A  FORWARD  LOOK  107 

fair  to  believe  that  never  before  did  they  have  such  a 
wholesome  respect  for  our  country  and  her  institutions. 
Our  Committee  on  Public  Information  is  said  to  have 
done  an  extremely  important  piece  of  work  in  Mexico 
during  the  War,  and  the  Mexican  people  not  only  came 
to  understand  what  the  War  was  all  about,  but  they  also 
learned  many  things  about  the  United  States  which  they 
had  never  before  known. 

In  order  to  understand  just  what  may  be  expected  to 
happen  if  conditions  continue  to  improve  in  Mexico,  we 
should  remind  ourselves  just  who  these  people  are  who 
are  at  present  in  our  midst.  Some  of  them  are  political 
refugees  who  have  no  idea  of  staying  permanently  in  the 
United  States.  As  soon  as  they  are  assured  of  personal 
amnesty  they  will  return  to  Mexico  to  look  after  their 
financial  and  other  interests  there.  Even  some  of  these 
political  refugees  have,  during  their  period  of  waiting, 
engaged  in  business  in  this  country  and  formed  so  many 
connections  here  that,  although  they  may  return  to  Mex- 
ico for  a  time  or  many  times,  the  United  States  will  be 
the  scene  of  most  of  their  future  activities.  Then  there 
are  the  contract  laborers  who  have  been  admitted  under 
special  arrangement  and  who,  by  the  very  terms  of  their 
admission,  are  supposed  to  be  returned  at  the  close  of 
their  period  of  employment.  The  largest  part  of  the 
recent  immigration,  however,  is  made  up  of  poor  Mexi- 
cans who  during  the  long  period  of  revolution  and  ban- 
ditry in  Mexico  have  come  to  the  United  States  in  order 
to  find  a  place  where  their  existence  would  be  to  some 
extent  more  tolerable.  Some  have  said  that  they  have 
suffered  worse  in  America  than  they  did  in  Mexico,  but 
for  the  most  part  they  have  found  remunerative  employ- 
ment at  wages  many  times  those  which  they  were  receiv- 


108  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

ing  in  Mexico,  and  they  have  found  advantages  for  their 
children  which  are  far  superior  to  those  which  they  were 
enjoying  in  Mexico.  It  is  fair  to  assume  that  those  who 
are  established  in  the  new  land  will  think  twice,  or  thrice, 
before  they  pack  up  and  return  to  the  uncertainties  of 
Mexico.  For  those  who  have  been  admitted  through  the 
regular  ports  of  entry  there  is  always  the  danger  that, 
should  they  again  be  dissatisfied  with  Mexico  and  desire 
to  return  to  the  United  States,  the  stricter  immigration 
regulations  would  prevent  them  from  coming  again  to  this 
country,  and,  for  those  who  have  come  across  the  line 
without  troubling  to  pass  through  a  regular  port  of  entry, 
there  is  the  same  danger.  Then,  too,  enough  Mexicans 
have  come  to  the  United  States,  so  that  none  need  to  be 
lonely  for  the  companionship  of  his  fellow  countrymen 
who  can  speak  his  language.  Some  one  has  pointed  out 
that  one  out  of  ten  of  the  Mexicans  is  already  in  the 
United  States,  and  this  is  not  far  from  the  truth,  if  we 
include  also  the  Spanish-Americans  here.  In  other  words, 
there  never  was  greater  reason  for  the  Mexican  to  be 
content  in  the  United  States,  and  there  are  still  many 
good  reasons  why  he  should  hesitate  to  return  to  Mexico. 
So  far  as  the  boys  and  girls  who  have  been  born  and 
are  being  born  in  the  United  States  and  who  are  growing 
up,  attending  the  public  schools,  and  forming  their  early 
attachments  here,  there  is  no  apppeal  from  Mexico  as 
the  homeland,  since  they  are  native  sons  and  have  their 
associations  and  their  interests  here.  Many  of  these 
boys  and  girls  would  sooner  or  later  return  to  the  United 
States  even  if  their  parents  should  take  them  back  to 
Mexico  meantime.  This  fact  alone  would  seem  to  make 
it  certain  that  we  have  for  all  time  to  come  materially 
increased  our  Mexican  stock.  Whether  this  will  eventuate 


A  FORWARD  LOOK  109 

to  our  advantage  or  not  will  be  determined  very  largely 
by  our  wisdom  and  our  tact  in  dealing  with  certain  very 
important  problems  in  the  days  ahead. 

Nowhere  in  the  United  States  is  the  problem  of  Ameri- 
canization a  more  complex  one  than  here.  Our  non- 
English-speaking  immigrants  from  nearly  every  other 
country  come  to  us  across  thousands  of  miles  of  ocean. 
On  the  contrary,  in  our  Southwest  tens  of  thousands  of 
Mexican  immigrants  live  literally  within  the  proverbial 
"stone's  throw"  of  their  native  land.  They  can  see  it 
each  day  if  they  care  to  do  so,  and  it  is  always  "just 
across  the  line."  They  may  live  and  die  in  the  United 
States,  but  yet  Mexico  is  there,  and  with  all  her  faults 
they  love  her  still.  It  is  not  surprising  that  few  Mexicans 
apply  for  American  citizenship,  for  Mexico  is  always  a 
tantalizing  possibility.  We  have,  therefore,  thousands  of 
Mexicans  in  the  United  States  who  have  no  desire  to  be- 
come Americans  or  to  be  "Americanized,"  and  they  never 
expect  to  be.  As  fair-minded  Americans  we  can  either 
eject  them  bodily  from  the  country  or  we  can  endeavor 
to  be  decent  to  them  while  they  remain  with  us.  In  many 
cases  their  children  are  destined  to  be  loyal  American 
citizens,  and  possibly  we  can  afford  to  be  patient  with 
them,  if  they  are  not  overly  eager  to  learn  the  English 
language  or  to  take  on  American  ways. 

For  many  years  to  come,  if  not  permanently,  the  Bor- 
der must  be  a  place  of  two  languages,  and  the  more  Amer- 
icans who  understand  Spanish  and  the  more  Mexicans 
who  understand  English  the  better  it  will  be  for  all  con- 
cerned. There  is  no  better  way  for  two  nations  to  under- 
stand each  other  than  for  them  to  understand  each  other's 
language.  There  is  every  reason  why  the  educational 
institutions  on  the  American  side  of  the  Border  should 


110  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

furnish  every  opportunity  for  English-speaking  pupils  to 
learn  Spanish  and  for  Spanish-speaking  pupils  to  learn 
English,  and  Mexico  in  turn  should  provide  similar  op- 
portunities on  her  side  of  the  line.  The  matter  is  of  suf- 
ficient importance  to  warrant  some  definite  international 
understanding  and  method  of  procedure.  In  the  mean- 
time we  should  be  patient  and  remind  ourselves  that 
"Americanization"  which  so  often  simmers  down  to  the 
learning  of  the  English  language  must,  in  many  instances, 
in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  move  slowly. 

It  should  be  noted  that  we  have  been  talking  about  Mex- 
icans in  the  United  States  and  not  about  Spanish-speaking 
American  citizens.  With  this  latter  group  there  has  been 
an  excuse  for  their  ignorance  of  English,  but  it  is  an  ex- 
cuse which  cannot  long  remain  valid,  and  vigorous  meas- 
ures should  at  once  be  taken  to  see  to  it  that  such  educa- 
tional steps  are  taken  as  will  make  it  unnecessary  for 
any  commmunity  in  the  United  States,  made  up  of  native- 
born  American  citizens,  to  be  dependent  upon  a  foreign 
language  for  the  transaction  of  its  affairs  or  the  carrying 
on  of  its  social  life. 

The  War  has  had  its  effect  here,  both  upon  the  young 
men  who  went  into  the  service  and  upon  those  who  stayed 
at  home,  for  a  new  patriotism  was  instilled,  and  the  desire 
to  learn  the  English  language  was  quickened.  How  much 
this  was  needed  is  perhaps  illustrated  by  the  story  told  on 
good  authority  that  native-born  Spanish-speaking  Ameri- 
cans claimed  military  exemption  on  the  ground  that  they 
were  not  American  citizens,  and  that  this  was  done  in  all 
good  faith  and  with  no  attempt  to  deceive.  One  of  the 
by-products  of  the  War,  namely,  the  increased  wages  for 
common  labor,  has  had  a  large  and  far-reaching  effect 
upon  Spanish-American  towns  of  long  standing.  Some 


A  FORWARD  LOOK  111 

have  for  this  reason  lost  from  ten  to  sixty  or  seventy  per 
cent  of  their  population.  The  assumption  is  that  as  most 
of  these  people  go  out  to  larger  centers  or  mingle  more 
actively  in  the  life  of  to-day  they  will  learn  and  come  to 
use  the  English  language.  During  the  War  Work  Cam- 
paign the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  did  a  valuable  piece  of  American- 
ization work  on  the  Border.  This  included,  among  other 
things,  the  distribution  of  $40,000  worth  of  Spanish 
pamphlets  and  other  propaganda  work. 

Now  that  the  centuries-old  seclusion  of  our  Spanish 
Southwest  is  being  broken  up,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that 
opinions  and  attitudes  will  remain  in  the  same  static  con- 
dition as  in  the  past.  Nor  is  it  to  be  expected  that  our 
Spanish-speaking  friends  will  be  immune  from  harmful 
propaganda.  Already  there  has  been  much  I.  W.  W.  and 
radical  socialistic  agitation  fomented  by  Spanish-speaking 
agitators.  This  propaganda  has  been  both  against  the 
church  and  the  state.  Dr.  Vernon  M.  McCombs  of  Los 
Angeles  describes  a  "cross-eyed,  Spanish-speaking  agi- 
tator haranguing  some  200  Mexicans  from  a  broken  chair 
in  the  Plaza."  The  following  poem  and  pledge  was  widely 
distributed  as  a  part  of  this  propaganda : 

CHURCHES  AND  BIBLES 
BY  HARRY  HERMANN 

The  church  is  a  fiend, 

The  Bible  a  lie, 
Though  Jesus  and  God 

Are   extolled   to   the   sky. 

The  preachers  will  tell  us  of  God  they  are  sent, 
But  their  speech  does  betray  that  for  money  they  went; 
They  talk  of  that  beautiful  home  in  the  sky, 
While  they  know  of  a  truth  they  are  telling  a  lie. 


112  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

Food,  clothing  and  shelter  they're  after  .  .  .  O,  well ! 

So  they  jump  to  the  pulpit  and  talk  of  that  hell: 
Tis  marvelous,  indeed,  how  the  dupes  they  do  work, 
While  themselves  from  all  useful  employment  they  shirk. 

The  time  has  now  come 

For  the  preacher  to  shun, 

Put  God  and  his  Jesus  to  hell  on  the  run; 
The  infidels,  atheists,  agnostics  are  here 
To  proclaim  the  glad  tidings,  a  message  of  cheer. 

So  to  hell  with  the  churches,  the  bibles  and  all, 
'Tis  nothing  but  graft,  and  bitter  as  gall ; 
If  worship  you  must,  then  worship  a  God 
Who  will  give  you  a  living  without  being  a  fraud. 


Anti-Enlistment  League 

I    ,   being 

over  eighteen  years  of  age,  hereby  pledge  myself  against  en- 
listing as  a  volunteer  in  any  military  or  naval  service  in 
international  war,  offensive  or  defensive,  and  against  giving 
my  approval  to  any  enlistment  on  the  part  of  others. 


City 

State , 

Street.... 
Date. 


The  foregoing  is  a  sample  of  the  character  and  spirit 
of  many  tracts  and  cartoons  which  have  been  distributed 
broadcast  among  the  Mexicans  of  the  Southwest.  The 
literature  for  this  propaganda  is  not  limited  to  tracts, 
however;  many  books  are  used,  such  as  "Jesus  Christ 
Never  Existed,"  "Mary  Magdalene,  the  Mistress  of 
Jesus,"  "An  Imaginary  God,  the  Child  of  Fear,"  and 
others  of  like  nature.  How  deeply  the  seeds  of  atheism 
and  radical  socialism  have  been  implanted  up  to  date  it  is 


A  FORWARD  LOOK  113 

difficult  to  say.  The  work  has  gone  far  enough,  however, 
to  warrant  the  undertaking  of  aggressive  steps  to  counter- 
act such  harmful  agiation.  It  is  significant  that  a  member 
of  the  Mexican  national  legislature  returned,  after  a  trip 
throughout  the  Southwest  among  Mexicans,  to  report  in 
Mexico  City  that  "the  United  States  is  becoming  I.  W. 
W.  and  atheistic."  It  is  also  significant  that  in  the  Bisbee 
deportation  some  time  ago  one-third  were  of  Mexicans. 
The  ignorance  of  the  Mexicans  makes  a  fertile  field  for 
the  planting  of  all  sorts  of  corrupting  ideas  and  nothing 
but  a  counter-attack  along  lines  of  education,  and  the  im- 
planting of  the  Christian  principles  of  individual  responsi- 
bility for  and  service  to  the  group  will  protect  them  from 
this  insidious  propaganda  which  is  continually  beng  spread 
among  them.  Incidentally  it  must  be  noted,  however,  that 
education  must  be  accompanied  by  a  rigorous  application 
of  the  principles  of  social  justice  to  our  treatment  of  the 
Mexican.  Churches  and  schools  and  ministers  and  social 
workers  are  already  doing  much  to  counteract  these  dan- 
gerous tendencies  which  are  manifesting  themselves 
among  the  Mexicans,  and  this  is  done,  not  only  through 
the  general  influence  of  the  work,  but  also  by  direct  deal- 
ing with  unsafe  leaders  and  agitators.  Many  of  the  fine 
and  educated  Mexican  pastors  are  in  a  position  to  render 
and  are  rendering  a  unique  service  of  this  character  among 
their  fellow-countrymen,  a  service  which  one  of  another 
race  could  hardly  perform. 

The  fact  that  Mexican  labor  has  been  largely  engaged 
in  agricultural  projects  where  decentralization  is  the  order 
of  the  day  may  account  to  some  extent  for  the  fact  that 
we  have  not  had  more  labor  disturbances  than  we  have 
had.  Just  what  the  future  has  in  store  along  this  line 
will  be  for  us  to  determine,  either  by  our  f oresightedness, 


114  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

or  by  our  negligence  and  indifference.  The  Mexican  in 
the  United  States  is  just  finding  himself.  Some  day  he 
will  be  more  conscious  of  his  power  and  his  importance 
than  he  is  to-day.  If  we  are  discreet  enough  we  shall 
see  to  it  that  these  Mexicans  in  the  United  States  are  so 
fairly  and  decently  treated  that  they  will  never  have  occa- 
sion to  express  their  race  consciousness  or  to  act  as  a  unit 
for  the  attainment  of  social  justice.  Up  to  date  the  Mex- 
ican has  had  many  reasons  for  distrusting  the  disinterested 
motives  of  America  and  Americans,  and  these  fears  have 
been  played  upon  by  both  priests  and  politicians.  The 
mere  fact  that  a  Mexican  has  been  forced  to  seek  refuge 
in  the  United  States  does  not  of  necessity  imply  that  he 
has  a  very  high  regard  for  Americans.  It  is  little  short 
of  amazing,  however,  to  see  how  quickly  this  inbred  dis- 
trust of  America  and  Americans  disappears  before  the 
sunlight  of  understanding,  friendly  sympathy,  and  kindly 
interest  expressed  by  Americans  who  are  eager  to  serve 
and  to  work  with  him  rather  than  to  exploit  him. 

So  many  aspects  of  the  problem  come  back  for  their 
final  solution  to  a  question  of  the  human  elements  in- 
volved that  we  are  not  likely  to  give  the  matter  too  much 
attention.  If  we  insist  upon  assuming  a  mental  and  moral 
superiority  to  the  Mexican,  and  upon  looking  at  him  as 
a  convenient  beast  of  burden,  useful  so  long  as  he  stays 
such,  and  undesirable  as  soon  as  he  begins  to  elevate  him- 
self and  his  standard  of  living  and  to  become  our  com- 
petitor in  the  various  fields  of  activity  which  we  like  to 
look  upon  as  distinctly  the  province  of  "Americans,"  then 
we  are  preparing  for  ourselves  a  problem  for  the  future, 
the  solution  of  which  will  be  as  long  drawn  out  and  as 
difficult  as  any  we  have  ever  faced.  Nothing  but  the 
frank  recognition  of  the  Mexican  on  his  own  merits  and 


A  FORWARD  LOOK  115 

the  determination  to  give  him  a  chance  to  make  of  himself 
as  a  man  all  that  he  can  make  will  help  us  to  avoid  catas- 
trophe here.  The  Mexican  in  the  United  States  in  con- 
trast to  any  other  alien  group  here  has  at  hand  a  nation 
fifteen  million  strong  which  will  not  permanently  tolerate, 
in  silence,  insults  and  mistreatment.  It  is  foolish  to 
argue  as  to  whether  the  Mexican  is  equal  to  or  superior 
in  ability  to  the  Anglo-Saxon.  That  is  quite  beside  the 
point,  which  is  whether  we  are  going  to  permit  the  Mex- 
ican to  go  as  far  along  the  pathway  of  achievement  as 
his  ability  will  permit  him  to  go.  If  we  accept  him  on 
this  basis,  we  have  no  occasion  to  fear  the  future,  but 
on  any  other  basis  there  are  indeed  dangers  ahead. 

While  legally  the  Mexican  in  the  United  States  is  a 
"white  man"  (and  incidentally  many  of  them  are  as 
white  as  Anglo-Saxons),  and  his  children  are  admitted 
to  the  public  schools,  and  he  is  permitted  to  purchase 
a  ticket  and  ride  on  any  train  on  which  a  white  man 
can  ride,  yet  there  is  a  tendency  in  too  many  quarters 
to  insist  that  "A  Mexican  is  a  Mexican."  There  is  no 
disposition  on  the  part  of  the  present  writer  to  deny  that 
fact;  he  might  even  say  with  equal  enthusiasm  that  "An 
American  is  an  American."  Nor  is  there  any  question 
about  the  fact  that  there  are  some  very  bad  Mexicans 
and  that  probably  the  percentage  of  dishonest  Mexicans 
and  of  poverty-stricken  Mexicans  is  greater  than  the  per- 
centage of  similar  classes  among  Americans.  But  to  any 
student  of  the  situation  this  would  seem  to  indicate,  not 
that  the  Mexican  is  born  with  any  particular  moral  defi- 
ciency, but  rather  that  he  has  unfortunately  been  cursed 
with  a  political  and  a  religious  environment  which  has 
been  largely  responsible  for  making  him  what  he  is.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  know  Mexicans  who  are  as  cultured 


116  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

and  as  thoroughly  educated  as  the  most  fastidious  Ameri- 
can could  desire  for  a  friend;  Mexicans  who  speak  and 
read,  not  two  languages  alone,  but  three  and  four ;  Mexi- 
cans whose  ideals  of  integrity  and  personal  honor  are  on 
a  par  with  the  best  Anglo-Saxon  ideals;  and  Mexicans 
whose  charming  manners  and  sensitive  natures  make  of 
them  delightful  companions  and  ornaments  for  any  draw- 
ing-room. For  an  American  to  snub  a  Mexican  because 
of  his  birth  is  for  him  to  reveal  his  own  provincialism 
and  to  cast  a  blot  upon  the  fair  name  of  America.  Mr. 
S.  G.  Inman,  in  "Intervention  in  Mexico,"  tells  of  an 
American  coming  to  the  end  of  a  trip  as  a  guest  of  Mex- 
ican officials  and  business  men  in  Mexico  during  which 
he,  with  other  Americans,  had  been  shown  something  of 
the  marvelous  resources  of  Mexico,  and  had  been  enter- 
tained by  some  of  the  most  cultured  and  most  prosperous 
people  in  Mexico  and  in  a  style  of  which  Americans  need 
not  have  been  ashamed,  remarking  in  the  presence  of 
Mexicans,  and  even  before  he  had  crossed  the  interna- 
tional line,  "There  are  two  things  I  could  never  under- 
stand, why  the  Lord  made  mosquitoes  and  Mexicans." 
ouch  an  exhibition  of  incivility,  discourtesy,  and  abso- 
lute foolishness  is  not  only  un-American,  but  it  is  also 
un-Mexican,  for  even  the  humblest  Mexican  can  teach 
us  many  things  about  the  art  of  politeness.  The  incident, 
however,  is  more  than  an  isolated  incident,  it  is  but  an 
illustration  of  an  attitude  of  assumed  superiority  of  one 
race  over  another,  and  an  attitude  which  can  only  bring 
disaster  in  our  dealings  with  the  Mexican,  if  we  persist 
in  it  or  permit  the  unthinking  element  of  our  population 
to  give  frequent  expression  to  it. 

Fortunately  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
conditions  which  make  for  a  continuance  of  this  attitude 


A  FORWARD  LOOK  117 

are  rapidly  passing  away.  There  is  a  steadily  growing 
respect  for  America  and  Americans  on  the  part  of  Mex- 
ico, and  there  is  a  similarly  enhanced  respect  for  Mexico 
and  Mexicans  being  developed  among  Americans.  What- 
ever President  Obregon  may  have  said  or  thought  about 
Americans  in  the  past,  his  regard  for  them  has  been 
steadily  increasing  as  he  has  come  to  know  them  better. 
He  frankly  recognizes  the  large  part  which  American  cap- 
ital has  played  and  must  continue  to  play  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Mexico;  he  has  declared  that  the  foreign  debts 
of  the  Mexican  republic  will  be  paid;  and  he  has  very 
plainly  declared  his  conviction  that  friendship  with  the 
United  States  is  not  only  essential  to  Mexican  progress, 
but  that  it  will  be  the  aim  of  his  government  to  promote 
such  friendship.  All  of  this  augurs  well,  not  only  for 
the  future  relationships  of  the  two  governments  con- 
cerned, but  also  for  the  future  relationships  of  the  two 
races  concerned. 

As  these  words  are  being  written  word  comes  that 
in  line  with  the  previous  declaration  of  the  Obregon  gov- 
ernment to  establish  a  "dry  zone"  on  the  Border  one  of 
the  very  worst  resorts  there,  namely,  the  "Owl,"  at  Mex- 
icali  has  been  closed  by  order  of  the  new  government  in 
Lower  California.  If  a  similar  policy  is  followed  along 
the  entire  Border,  one  of  the  greatest  occasions  of  mis- 
judgment  of  each  other  may  be  done  away,  for  it  was 
here  on  the  international  line  where  the  very  worst  ele- 
ments of  Mexico  and  the  United  States  met  and  where 
respect  for  each  other  was  lost  in  the  free  reign  of  vice. 
If  we  can  now  supplement  this  very  necessary  and  desir- 
able negative  program  with  a  positive  program  which  will 
supply  wholesome  interests  and  activities  for  those  which 
have  long  been  so  extremely  unwholesome,  we  may  as  a 


118  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

nation  breathe  a  freer  and  purer  atmosphere  in  the  future 
than  we  have  in  the  past  along  our  extended  southern 
Border. 

It  is  apparent  long  before  this  that,  try  as  we  will  to 
limit  our  attention  to  those  phases  of  the  Mexican  ques- 
tion which  lie  north  of  the  international  line,  we  con- 
tinually find  ourselves  dipping  down  into  Old  Mexico 
herself.  It  is  suggestive  of  the  fundamentally  artificial 
character  of  our  political  demarcations  and  of  the  insist- 
ence of  human  nature  in  disregarding  them.  We  can 
as  little  permanently  confine  people  and  social  problems 
within  political  areas  as  we  can  control  water  with  a 
basket;  they  will  not  stay  "put."  Mexico's  problems  and 
Mexico's  achievements  become  ours  by  the  very  law  of 
propinquity,  and  the  rapidity  and  extent  of  our  progress 
is  to  a  very  considerable  extent  conditioned  by  hers.  We 
have  more  than  a  mere  neighborly  interest,  therefore,  in 
Mexico's  progress  educationally,  socially,  and  econom- 
ically. We  are  man  and  wife  by  common  law  marriage, 
and  no  international  divorce  court  can  ever  issue  a  decree 
which  will  separate  our  interests. 

Not  only  should  we  understand  each  other's  language, 
but  we  should  also  understand  each  other's  history,  tra- 
ditions, and  customs.  Many  who  cannot  learn  another 
language  or  who  would  have  little  occasion  to  use  it  can 
at  least  take  pains  to  be  informed  about  these  neighbors 
who  are  not  destined  to  move  soon  out  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. A  little  study  of  the  historical  background  for 
the  situation  to  be  found  in  the  Southwest  will  not  only 
put  us  into  a  more  intelligent  touch  with  the  Mexicans 
themselves,  but  it  will  also  give  us  a  more  sympathetic 
understanding  of  our  own  Spanish-American  fellow  citi- 
zens. For  many  who  are  removed  from  personal  contact 


A  FORWARD  LOOK  119 

with  these  people,  an  understanding  of  the  situation  and 
a  loyal  support  of  the  agencies  dealing  with  them  is  per- 
haps all  that  can  be  expected;  for  those  who  live  in 
intimate  contact  with  it  duty  does  not  end  there.  The 
whole  nation  has  a  right  to  expect  that  every  true  Amer- 
ican who  has  dealings  with  an  individual  of  Mexican 
origin  shall  maintain  an  attitude  of  friendliness  and  re- 
spect toward  him,  and  treat  him  with  all  the  fairness  and 
the  justice  which  he  would  accord  to  one  of  another  race. 
To  do  less  is  not  only  to  bring  reproach  upon  America 
but  to  lay  up  for  all  of  us  serious  complications  for  the 
future. 

We  have  a  difficult  task  to  perform ;  it  is  the  ever  com- 
plicated one  of  endeavoring  to  help  a  people  who  are 
in  need  without  doing  them  more  harm  than  good,  with- 
out pauperizing  them  as  we  try  to  assist  them.  Both  the 
Mexican  in  the  United  States  and  the  Spanish-American 
have  needs  deep  and  far-reaching  which  we  must  from 
all  the  motives  of  altruism  and  self-interest  help  to  meet. 
These  needs  are  physical,  economic,  intellectual,  moral, 
and  spiritual.  We  cannot  refuse  to  meet  them  without 
great  danger  to  ourselves.  The  Mexican  in  our  national 
life  has  become  too  numerous  to  ignore;  he  is  too  im- 
portant a  factor  in  our  life  to  forget;  but  as  we  assist 
him  to  take  his  place  as  an  integral  part  of  our  body 
politic,  and  not  as  an  alien  adjunct  thereto,  we  must 
endeavor  to  master  the  fine  art  of  working  with  and  not 
so  exclusively  for  him  as  we  have  in  the  past.  In  the 
accomplishment  of  this  task  we  ought  to  be  able  to  call 
into  play  the  best  efforts  of  some  of  the  best  educated, 
most  cultured,  and  wealthiest  Mexicans  in  our  midst. 
If  they  have  not  been  accustomed  to  engage  in  altruistic 
tasks,  they  ought  to  be  trained  to  do  so.  At  present  there 


120  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

is  too  great  a  gulf  fixed  between  the  more  fortunate  and 
the  poorer  Mexican  in  the  United  States.  There  seems 
to  be  no  medium  through  which  the  one  can  help  the 
other.  We  have  been  so  impressed  at  times  with  the 
needs  of  the  poorer  Mexican  that  we  have  not  only 
ignored  the  needs  of  the  more  prosperous,  but  we  have 
also  failed  to  bring  the  resources  of  the  one  to  the  help 
of  the  other  to  their  mutual  advantage. 

A  gentleman  of  Mexican  extraction  has  suggested  in 
this  connection  that  we  need  in  important  centers  more 
"Mexican  Centers,"  institutions  which  will  furnish  a 
meeting  place  for  people  of  Mexican  extraction,  not  a 
social  settlement  for  the  poor  and  in 'which  a  more  for- 
tunate Mexican  would  hesitate  to  be  seen,  but  centers  so 
conducted  as  to  bring  no  social  reproach  upon  those  who 
enter  their  walls  but  rather  to  serve  as  the  nucleus  of  the 
Mexican  life  of  the  community  and  of  an  educational 
and  social  program  which  will  interest  and  minister  to 
groups  of  many  sorts.  Something  of  this  sort  has  already 
been  achieved  in  certain  centers  opened  by  the  Y.  W.  C. 
A.,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  certain  churches,  and  other  agencies; 
but  only  a  beginning  has  been  made,  and  we  are  still  in 
the  class  of  learners. 

Of  course  there  is  no  one  solution  to  a  problem  so 
large,  so  diversified,  and  so  complex.  It  will  require  the 
best  efforts  of  all  of  us  applied  in  many  ways  and  through 
many  channels.  The  essential  thing  is  for  us  to  recog- 
nize that  the  Mexican  is  with  us  to  stay,  that  our  future 
is  inextricably  bound  up  with  his,  as  with  no  other  alien 
race,  that  we  must  live  together  whether  we  will  or  no, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  that  the  Mexican  is  a  man  with 
fine,  sensitive  qualities  of  nature  and  with  capabilities 
which  are  destined  to  lead  him,  no  one  knows  how  far, 


along  the  path  of  progress.  He  is  a  factor  to  be  reckoned 
with,  but  to  be  reckoned  with  gladly,  for  he  comes  bring- 
ing gifts;  and  his  already  large  and  steadily  increasing 
contribution  to  our  life  is  helping  to  make  America  a 
better  place  in  which  to  live  and  a  far  more  interesting 
abode  because  of  the  rich  and  diversified  endowments 
which  he  brings  with  him. 

Our  great  Southwest,  destined  to  be  the  chief  amphi- 
theater of  the  Mex- American  life  in  our  country,  is 
already  an  empire  in  itself,  but  its  marvelous  resources 
have  only  begun  to  be  exploited.  Within  the  last  decade 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  what  was  once  sup- 
posed to  be  permanent  desert  have  been  transformed  into 
veritable  garden  spots,  and  millions  of  dollars  worth  of 
products  are  being  produced  where  nothing  but  cactus 
and  sagebrush  had  ever  grown  before.  Dams  have  been 
built,  irrigation  projects  opened,  and  electric  power  plants 
erected.  Great  pumping  outfits  have  been  established, 
and  these  are  increasing  as  the  water  power  is  more  thor- 
oughly harnessed,  so  that  land  which  could  not  otherwise 
be  watered  may  have  water  pumped  for  its  use.  Thus 
everywhere  the  thirsty  desert  is  being  transformed  and 
the  Mexican  is  making  this  transformation  possible.  He 
does  'not  limit  his  activities  to  the  surface  of  the  ground, 
however,  for  he  is  a  natural  miner,  and  he  may  be  found 
underground  or  digging  into  the  side  of  a  mountain  to 
release  the  hidden  coal,  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  other 
minerals  with  which  the  hills  of  the  Southwest  are  stored. 

We  have  heard  a  great  deal  in  recent  years  about 
"city  planning."  Once  people  let  their  cities  grow  up 
as  chance  might  dictate,  and  then  one  day  they  woke 
to  the  folly  of  such  a  procedure.  Why  not  plan  the  city 
in  advance,  and  thus  direct  the  lines  of  its  growth  so  that 


122  NEAR  SIDE  OF  THE  MEXICAN  QUESTION 

the  final  result  might  be  more  pleasing  to  the  eye  and 
more  worthy  of  the  people  to  whom  it  belonged?  To-day 
we  are  as  a  nation  building  a  great  empire  in  our  South- 
west, and  we  are  building  it,  to  a  large  extent,  out  of 
stones  quarried  from  the  human  quarries  of  Old  Mexico. 
Up  to  date  we  have  moved  ahead  without  much  plan  and 
with  slight  vision  of  what  the  final  result  might  chance 
to  be.  Is  it  not  time  that  we  should  begin  to  consider 
with  care  what  we  are  building  in  order  that  the  product 
of  the  formative  years  just  ahead  may  be  pleasing  to  be- 
hold and  may  be  worthy  of  a  great  nation  established 
upon  principles  of  justice,  enlightenment,  and  human 
brotherhood  ? 

Among  those  who  have  been  wise  enough  to  see  and 
plan  for  the  future  is  the  Mormon  Church.  In  the  very 
center  of  the  Southwest  in  the  Salt  River  Valley  of  Ari- 
zona which  has  risen  almost  overnight  from  the  wilder- 
ness and  clothed  itself  with  verdure  of  remarkable  beauty 
and  economic  value,  the  Mormons  have  quietly  estab- 
lished themselves  on  thousands  of  acres  of  the  most  pro- 
ductive soil.  They  have  reared  their  neat  chapels,  and 
now  they  have  projected  a  Mormon  Temple  to  cost  at 
least  $600,000.  This  will  make  the  Salt  River  Valley 
the  great  Mormon  center  of  the  Southwest,  and  from  it 
will  go  out  scores  of  missionaries  to  work  among  Mex- 
icans both  above  and  below  the  Border.  Already  many 
adherents  of  Mormonism  are  reported  in  Old  Mexico, 
in  Sonora,  Chihuahua,  and  other  states,  and  a  recent 
report  indicates  thirty-seven  Spanish-speaking  Mormon 
missionaries  in  the  four  states  of  Arizona,  New  Mexico, 
Texas,  and  Colorado.  It  is  reported  that  a  considerable 
number  of  Mexican  converts  to  Mormonism  in  the  United 
States  have  already  been  baptized. 


A  FORWARD  LOOK  123 

It  is  for  the  people  of  America  to  determine  whether 
the  ideals  of  Mormonism,  of  the  I.  W.  W.,  of  radical 
socialism,  of  atheism,  and  infidelity,  or  of  the  very  best 
that  America  has  to  offer  are  to  dominate  the  Southwest 
which  is  to-day  in  the  making.  Possibly  nowhere  else 
has  America  an  opportunity,  at  the  moment,  to  do  a  finer, 
more  constructive  and  more  rewarding  bit  of  national 
prophylaxis  than  here. 

A  word  to  the  wise  is  sufficient. 


THE  END 


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